BTC energy use jumps 41% in 12 months, increasing regulatory risks

[FMCPAY_GLOBAL]

Despite the European Union rejecting a proposal banning crypto mining earlier this year, more regulations could soon be implemented to mitigate the environmental impacts of crypto mining.

Bitcoin has seen a 41% increase in energy consumption Year-on-Year (YoY) despite dramatic improvements in energy efficiency and a more diverse and sustainable energy mix — but there are concerns the rise could see regulators clamp down on mining.

The data comes from a Q3 2022 report by the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) which represents 51 of the world's largest Bitcoin mining companies.

The report found Bitcoin mining to consume 0.16% of global energy production, slightly less than the energy consumed by computer games according to the BMC — and an amount it considered to be “an inconsequential amount of global energy.”

Bitcoin mining also emitted 0.10% of the world’s carbon emissions which the BMC deemed to be “negligible.”

(Source: Cointelegraph)

What do you think about BTC this year and what will happen in cryptocurrency at the year-end?

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[Apocollapse]

It's not fair to mention the energy use increase 41% in 12 months since the other sectors also use more energy since there's many development by every year. Although there's no data about energy use Year on Year of banking system, but I believe it's increase too.

I think this should be mentioned on any articles because even though Bitcoin do consume more energy, but it's using renewable energy and the energy used is more efficient in the next eight years later.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

You have to include one more thing to your discussion.

The percent of renewable energy is used in Bitcoin mining is increasing too and it is better than so many other industries.

Bitcoin Mining Council released their recent report about it.

Q3 Bitcoin Mining Council Survey confirms year on year improvements in sustainable power mix and technological efficiency

According to it, total mining hashrate increased 73% YoY in Q3 2022 and the sustainable power mix is at 59.4%. It is an 3% YoY increase from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022.

It's true that the energy crisis globally can cause short term stricter regulation on Bitcoin mining when governments try to resolve the temporary shortages of energy resources.

[avikz]

I echo the comment from Apocollapse. That's what the truth is! Even if the energy consumption is increasing, the proportion of sustainable and green energy is also increasing. So that's a net positive for environment. However, my only fear is the overly concerned EU parliament and the environmentalists with political power. They will anyways try to raise concerns at the highest level possible to satisfy their own agenda. EU parliament has already initiated proceedings to ban any "proof of work" cryptocurrency and I believe there was some movement to this news in the last week. This is concerning, because it will create a huge problem for the sustainability of bitcoin network, even though it will be temporary. 

[pooya87]

You forgot to include the most important keyword in your title: "regulatory risks in Europe".

That changes everything, mainly because there isn't that much hashrate coming from Europe to begin with so even if they outright ban bitcoin mining it won't change anything at all. The biggest country with the biggest hashrate was China and their mining ban didn't really change the hashrate or cause any troubles!

Besides, with the energy crisis that Europe is facing and the super high price of electricity I don't see any kind of mining happening in Europe in near future even if they don't ban it.

P.S. The rest regarding the energy consumption is the repetition of the same old FUDs.

[Die_empty]

What do you think about BTC this year and what will happen in cryptocurrency at the year-end?

An increase in power usage might be because more miners a coming on board which has made mining difficult. But the bitcoin mining sector is one of the pacesetters in the quest to promote an environmentally friendly society. In recent times we have seen many miners switch to green power sources more than any other sector.
  
If computer games that offer just entertainment are consuming more power than a decentralized and transparent financial system like bitcoin, why all this media backlash? The news of bitcoiners contribution to a clean and green environment gets less publicity while any negative news is given wide coverage.

Many smear campaigns against bitcoin are failing because people are becoming more enlightened about the benefits that bitcoin offers as well as the hypocrisy of most policymakers which is why adoption is increasing. I don't expect this report to have any negative effect on bitcoin. If mining is stopped in any country, miners would move to more friendly countries.

[so98nn]

You guys are also forgetting one very important point in the discussion:

When we talk about regulatory risks or some government imposing threat to the bitcoin mining we only consider that particular "government" or "country".

Pick up any discussion and we start to scare from the fact that it could affect the "global mining", and is it really true?

The fact that we have more than 50s or 70s strong governments around the world which could easily dominate one another and still keep bitcoin or bitcoin related operations active throughout the world.

We don't need europe to support bitcoin mining or we dont care if India bans mining to the last ASIC available and cease them all!

For that matter we only need one big mining farm running somewhere on an private island or may be some nigerian goverment supporting bitcoin.

STILL, bitcoin/crypto space gonna live forever.

All those freak shows regarding energy, this and that gonna stay forever. Nobody cared when industries grew over couple of 100 years, no one cared when trucks and cars started roaring, so why care of bitcoin mining machine which is still efficient as compared to all those stuff mentioned above.

[NotATether]

Well, I was wrong about CoinTelegraph giving two damns about Bitcoin. Turns out that they play devil's advocate just like the others.

Expect an article to counter this FUD shortly. There have also been some ignominy from The Guardian after they wrote that article saying trapping gas flaring for Bitcoin Mining doesn't help the environment. Which is a shame hearing that from them because they are not even funded by any venture capitalist unlike the other outlets.

The general idea of this article and more are debunked on https://bitcoincleanup.com

[worle1bm]

You forgot to include the most important keyword in your title: "regulatory risks in Europe".

That changes everything, mainly because there isn't that much hashrate coming from Europe to begin with so even if they outright ban bitcoin mining it won't change anything at all. The biggest country with the biggest hashrate was China and their mining ban didn't really change the hashrate or cause any troubles!

Even if miners shifts to sustainable resources for mining and use less energy they will put allegations against these pow mechanism and show their concern towards environment but will not look up on other sectors consuming the same or more energy.So this is all fake drama against btc and Europe is among them and you are right on the part even if they ban it there would be no such big effect on mining similar to China despite being the fact China was mining hub.

This whole energy reports are printed by the government agencies only and they can easily show what they want to show but if you look from mining council reports you will find they are using renewable sources also for mining but do we see it in these charts? So don't be fooled by these fake claims to spread FUD and stay positive.

[Kemarit]

Yeah, seems to me that the article is full of FUD and biased towards bitcoin mining and it's energy consumption. 41% jump in 12 months? LOL, that's absurd and it seems that they just spin this numbers to fit their narrative. And for sure those anti bitcoin mining proponents will used this article to point out the negative things that bitcoin can bring. Anyway, we know that this is not true and there are even worst industries that contributed more in the energy consumption as compare to bitcoin.

[Gyfts]

EU's been heading in the direction of regulating crypto mining into the ground. I assumed the only thing that was holding them back was a palatable excuse to give out to the public. With energy shortages, seems they have something to blame. Emissions from crypto mining aren't anything that would have an impact on climate change, so the angle the EU is trying to take here isn't anything based on reality. Energy consumption through crypto mining isn't anything worthy of discussion either, it makes up significantly less than a fraction of percentage point. This is purely political.

[pooya87]

Even if miners shifts to sustainable resources for mining and use less energy they will put allegations against these pow mechanism and show their concern towards environment but will not look up on other sectors consuming the same or more energy.

Another issue here is that when a country is facing energy crisis they won't care if a miner is getting its electricity from a renewable/green source. What they care about is any way they could cover that gap. For example if there is mass blackouts they are not going to allow a miner continue mining using hydroelectricity! They are going to want to use that small amount to cover a little bit of that electricity supply shortage.