Bitcoin Power Consumption

[Albert211994]

Power consumption of bitcoin mining keeps going up. And will continue to go up as bitcoin usage and price increases. This have harsh enviromental implications. Is there a way to reduce power consumption or are there plans to switch to a more eco-friendly way of mining bitcoin?

[dothebeats]

This has been quite the rhetorical question of August-September here in bitcointalk, but to at least give you an answer, there aren't any plans to switch over to a greener alternative as of the moment, and I'm pretty sure the community and the devs are aware of what's in store for the bitcoin network regarding power consumption. Some miners have already made their own moves by moving into remote areas wherein internet is still accessible but they get the power of hydroelectric plants, with costs which are not lucrative and maintenance is easier since the area is a natural temperate region. Some farms in China have been relocating to the mountains to seek greener and cheaper power, great operating conditions for the miners which greatly reduces the power in cooling these machines. Perhaps a new algorithm would be introduced which is quite on par with the integrity PoW offers as of the moment, but as far as that change goes, there aren't any discussions yet.

[franky1]

the ACTUAL power usage is not the 1% that has been spouted about
by doing calculations on this months hashrate. the electrical usage is about 0.1% of RESIDENTIAL USAGE

which if you were to combine it with industrial and commercial. would be far LOWER
and then if you think about the new gen ASICS coming soon which are not only twice the hashrate but also less electric needed per unit. then the efficiency gets even better and the percentage drops again(under 0.03%)..

now then. if we were to take todays hashrate but go back to GPU mining and take the electric requirements of that. then GPU mining would be about 1400x an asic per kwh  meaning the current 0.1% ASIC would be 140% of world electric GPU mining..

so relax. people are already ahead of you worry. they been ahead of it since 2013.
so much so infact that the electric consumption vs generation gap  (the excess) bitcoin is not even using up 1% of EXCESS

[Kemarit]

Power consumption of bitcoin mining keeps going up. And will continue to go up as bitcoin usage and price increases. This have harsh enviromental implications. Is there a way to reduce power consumption or are there plans to switch to a more eco-friendly way of mining bitcoin?

Care to share what harsh environmental implications you talking about?

Its possible that many bitcoin mining hardware gear in the future could be eco-friendly, like GMO Internet Launches Mining Machine GMO miner B3 With a Maximum Hash Power of 33 TH/s: Customers can maximize hash power and power consumption in their environment.

But did you know that banking consumes an estimated 100 terrawatts of power annually? So stop worrying about how much energy bitcoin uses.

[Impulseboy]

I do not understand how this is becoming a topic of concern with bitcoin users lately. I am sure that there are other corporations and households that consumes more power than bitcoin mining. And although there are many people who uses bitcoin, there are more people who are not using and/or even unaware of the existence of cryptocurrency. That being said, I, too, hope that someday we will find an environmental friendly alternative for mining bitcoins.

[Gaaara]

There is no alternative for the power consumption, and I don't see any other way to do it. For me the power consumption is reasonable and is being fair unless you come from a country which the power bills or the electric bill is higher than the average it happens when your country lacks of energy or oil to provide power.

[yogeshkale]

Bitcoin is more power consumption a lot of mining company increasing their hash power so increases the difficulty of bitcoin mining so consume electricity. Nowadays bitcoin mining not profitable or also consume more power.

[LeGaulois]

The conspiracy about the Bitcoin consumption disaster has been debunked several times. Desperate to find an argument against Bitcoin these same people then argued about the storage cost. None of both is a valid argument. if you compare with what banks, Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Discover, etc are all using, the Bitcoin's energy is peanuts compared to.

BTW, I am waiting to see @KingScorpion commenting on this topic to talk about the Bitcoin "cult" and the POW 

[Xavofat]

But did you know that banking consumes an estimated 100 terrawatts of power annually?

The power consumption of banks isn't really comparable to the power consumption of Bitcoin unless you factor in the amount of transactions conducted with each service.  Considering that even in its current state Bitcoin takes up a pretty serious amount of power by all credible estimates, it would be a massive guzzler if it was more widely used.

It's not worth worrying about yet because there is value to Bitcoin's power consumption - it maintains the security of the system - and at some point renewable energy could become more commonplace, but let's not kid ourselves that it's really innocent compared to the big nasty banks.

[EmmaBen]

I understand the problem of mining vs power and the heavy cost implications. This is one of the few reasons why mining is considered to be no lucrative. It really requires a lot of resources.
Sstoshi has done well with his innovation, and I belief he and his team of developers (if any  ) can still do more in improving the mining algorithm. Of course if the algorithm is improved, it could reduce electricity consumption.

It is even made a bit difficult because of the amount of bitcoins currently in circulation. And I believe this was an unforseen "harmless" error right from the very beginning.

[darkangel11]

But did you know that banking consumes an estimated 100 terrawatts of power annually?

The power consumption of banks isn't really comparable to the power consumption of Bitcoin unless you factor in the amount of transactions conducted with each service.  Considering that even in its current state Bitcoin takes up a pretty serious amount of power by all credible estimates, it would be a massive guzzler if it was more widely used.

Really? So in your opinion if suddenly ten million people joined the crypto space and started to send transactions on regular basis the power consumption of BTC miners would skyrocket? It doesn't work like that. The blocks are being mined regardless of whether your transaction occupies the space or not! If there's too many transactions you will have to wait a little longer or pay more, but it won't mean that someone somewhere will have to plug in another antminer to make sure you're being served.

[hadveach]

owh, sure. many ways to create environmentally friendly mining, I think using solar power, waste power, hydropower will create a good mining and save more on electricity costs.

some cities in the England have used hydropower for mining.

[team87]

Consumption of Bitcoin mining power will continue to increase, I say it's natural. Because there is always movement and increase day by day. I guess that's not the main problem.

[bloodyvio]

this is a difficult problem to solve
until now there is no eco-friendly mining tool

[figmentofmyass]

Power consumption of bitcoin mining keeps going up. And will continue to go up as bitcoin usage and price increases. This have harsh enviromental implications. Is there a way to reduce power consumption or are there plans to switch to a more eco-friendly way of mining bitcoin?

it might. ideally, bitcoin miners would flock to areas where there is surplus electricity capacity---situations like hydroelectric plants where there is more energy generated from running water than is needed in the area. in those cases, miners could be securing the network with little or no energy footprint.

the use of renewable energy sources in mining is also relevant here. it's not just a question of how much electricity miners use; it's a question of what electricity.

[jamota]

Currently bitcoin mining is not profitable or also consumes more power.
Bitcoin is a power consumption that more mining companies increase their hash power so that it increases the difficulty of bitcoin mining to consume electricity.

[Maricel2017]

Less maintenance will increase the consumption of every equipment i think you should find alternative supply of power which less electricity but eco friendly like solar energy panel but it will depend on your area. You should invest big money for that but you can used that life time.

[franky1]

currently bitcoin mining is profitable. if you living in the right area and have the right equipment

and so this topic will eventually squabble around and eventually say but what about the residence and the impact to bitcoin sucking energy away from them causing issues.. well ill just leave this quote here.. oh and it also includes the stupid "china have 50%" screams and worries addressed too

anyway for reference of math, the network utility of power is 20TW a year
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4976730.msg45537985#msg45537985

The generation of electricity cannot be stored or "saved" because the world does not have the technology to "hold" all that energy yet. Once it is generated, it should be used, or the costs used to generate it would be wasted. The only "wasted electricity" is unused electricity.

There definitively are miners using partially "not-scarce" electricity (like coal/hydro/nuclear power at night when there is low domestic consumption but the plants cannot be "regulated down"). But if only because of Bitcoin mining, existing plants have to work more, or new electric plants have to be built, then Bitcoin "is using scarce electricity". I am pretty sure that this applies to a majority of miners.

power plants do regulate. and at night they do shut down some generators.
but they do try to keep some excess between produced and consumed.
it does take 30mins-1 hour to restart a generator. so they like to keep a gap. and they also like to sell some of that excess to other countries**  
**OR INDUSTRIES hint hint

so here goes
lets imagine out of the 20.7twh.. that 50% was just in china (10.35)
china consumes 5683
china produces 6529
=836 difference (13% safety gap)

10 vs 800 excess.. = no impact to residences lives

have a good day. china love that someone is buying their excess

[geminiboy]

owh, sure. many ways to create environmentally friendly mining, I think using solar power, waste power, hydropower will create a good mining and save more on electricity costs.

some cities in the England have used hydropower for mining.

Bitcoin mining with solar power may be less effective, but if you use hydropower it can be maximized, then is it true that in the UK it has been mining using waste, water and solar power, can I find a link about the news?

[chocolah29]

owh, sure. many ways to create environmentally friendly mining, I think using solar power, waste power, hydropower will create a good mining and save more on electricity costs.

some cities in the England have used hydropower for mining.

Bitcoin mining with solar power may be less effective, but if you use hydropower it can be maximized, then is it true that in the UK it has been mining using waste, water and solar power, can I find a link about the news?

How come it will be less effective? As far as I know, using solar power is consistent as having a regular electricity. It may be less effective if your solar panel didn't get enough charge as it may affect the consistency in mining. But if you live in a tropical country wherein the temperature usually get in 40°C, this will be enough to charge the solar panel that can be use in household.

Yet still it will always depend on classification of solar panel.