US wants to know bitcoin electricity usage in the country

[Oshosondy]

I first saw it in Twitter:

BREAKING:  The Biden Administration has issued an "emergency" data collection initiative to identify the electricity usage of the #Bitcoin mining industry in USA

Then I saw it on the news: https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-crypto-mining-electricity-survey-energy-department

It is a six month mandatory survey.

Let us hope these people are not trying to come up with something.

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[AbuBhakar]

I first saw it in Twitter:

🚨 BREAKING: 🇺🇸 The Biden Administration has issued an "emergency" data collection initiative to identify the electricity usage of the #Bitcoin mining industry in USA 😳

Then I saw it on the news: https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-crypto-mining-electricity-survey-energy-department

Let us hope these people are not trying to come up with something.

This is madness and crazy at the same time. Why they keep torturing Bitcoins like this while there’s a lot of factory that consumes tons of energy and producing waste at the same yet there’s no serious complaint about it despite bunch of global warming advocacy against it.

Biden Administration is hypocrites to its finest on focusing alone on the power consumption of Bitcoin as if it’s the only thing that consumes power in their country. Their banks is already collapsing, this is probably their retaliation to make people focus on their shit banks and discouraged the use of Bitcoin.

[criptoevangelista]

Maybe it's just to attract attention while they make another kind of lame move typical of politicians.

We all know that mining uses most of the energy that would be wasted or renewable energy, otherwise this line of activity would not be profitable.

[Text]

The EIA has conducted a rigorous evaluation of U.S. crypto mining activities using public data and estimated it to represent as much as 2.2% of U.S. electricity consumption.

The University of Cambridge’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index estimated worldwide Bitcoin mining used 121.13 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023. The entire country of the Netherlands, with more than 17 million people, consumed 121.6 terawatt-hours in 2022.
https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/how-much-power-does-crypto-use-the-government-wants-to-know

While it’s understandable to have concerns about what the administration might do with this data, it’s also important to remember that understanding the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining could lead to more informed policies and regulations. It could potentially lead to innovations that make Bitcoin mining more energy-efficient, or it could influence the development of renewable energy projects. Let’s hope for a positive outcome.

[Natsuu]

Maybe it's just to attract attention while they make another kind of lame move typical of politicians.

We all know that mining uses most of the energy that would be wasted or renewable energy, otherwise this line of activity would not be profitable.

It's a possibility. Some think the focus on Bitcoin's energy use is a bit of a distraction, drawing attention away from other political moves. And you're right, many miners aim to use cost-effective or renewable energy to stay profitable. The debate continues on how to balance crypto activities with environmental concerns

[PX-Z]

Let us hope these people are not trying to come up with something.

Of course they will after all that mandatory survey made, we just don't know what it is, new tax regulations, new policy might be good, but banning it will be the worst scenario.

This is madness and crazy at the same time. Why they keep torturing Bitcoins like this while there’s a lot of factory that consumes tons of energy and producing waste at the same yet there’s no serious complaint about it despite bunch of global warming advocacy against it.

Don't talk like the survey have already done that it will end up in always as a bad news, it could be just new policy and innovation for good, or just tax related policy.

[examplens]

Let us hope these people are not trying to come up with something.

I will give you the answer here as well as elsewhere 
The US lacked some energy because of the cold days, so it is somehow easiest to look at Bitcoin as the culprit. Bitcoin is a consumer of electricity, but certainly not as it is presented. Cointelegraph could do some research

check this https://bitcoincleanup.com/

or references listed at https://endthefud.org/

[kentrolla]

They have gone crazy as the hatred for Bitcoin in their mind is clearly visible and I think when they cannot ban Bitcoin as they were unsuccessful in their previous smear campaigns they have now adopted new method of threatening users indirectly and all these unnecessary activities to make miners feel unsecure or to put them in spot light it's actually a design thinking called spot light affect it's a psychological game which they are playing. Bitcoin has sustain all these hurdle and it will sustain this one as well. 

[electronicash]

Let us hope these people are not trying to come up with something.

Of course they will after all that mandatory survey made, we just don't know what it is, new tax regulations, new policy might be good, but banning it will be the worst scenario.

This is madness and crazy at the same time. Why they keep torturing Bitcoins like this while there’s a lot of factory that consumes tons of energy and producing waste at the same yet there’s no serious complaint about it despite bunch of global warming advocacy against it.

Don't talk like the survey have already done that it will end up in always as a bad news, it could be just new policy and innovation for good, or just tax related policy.

there is nothing good when the government surveys and collects data.  this is where they will identify whether the miner is using the grid or their own green-environment-friendly energy source. i guess they would do something to those miners using the electricity coming from the grid. most probably collect their share maybe but don't think the green energy miners are safe.

my guess is, the miners will sign contracts to only sell BTC to the government?
or the government will get its share from the BTC  they mine?
or this is where miners are going to be united by the government to censor transactions.  

[PrivacyG]

I want to hope this is their way of helping Bitcoin out like some users pointed above.  But considering the previous actions taken by The United States against Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency in general, I do not think it is their intention.  I for one expect the worst or dumbest thing to happen soon.  Probably hearing about Bitcoin being the 'main contributor' of climate change again.  Or obliging Miners to pay extra Tax for contributing to it.

[Bitstar_coin]

Is this their strategy to start attacking us base miners? Because if the outcome of the survey is anything less than expected i guess that will be their next line of action otherwise what will prompt such surveys in the first place 
The moment things about to get serious some irrelevant fud will pop up from the government, kind of like there is a dept that solely focuses on creating fud for the govt. 

[Mate2237]

And that strategy can only work with centralized exchanges system and not for the decentralized exchanges ecosystem. If USA is trying nto monitor cryptocurrency users data then as I said earlier it can only goe the KYC system and not for the non KYC system or platforms. USA is always bringing new things to regulate bitcoin and it brothers cryptocurrencies but they can't do that to non custodial wallets.

They should just let bitcoin be the way it because the more they try to regulate the more difficult for them to do.

[tbct_mt2]

It is like attack against Bitcoin. One day after attack from the USA, there is another one from Europe. They don't do this randomly but nearly in time coincidentally, all was planned, in my opinion.

Many fud against Bitcoin mining and it is just coming back when Bitcoin needs correction.

Ses a fud in 2017
Bitcoin mining on track to consume all of the world's energy by 2020.

Magically, not till 2020 but today in 2024, we still have energy to use even Bitcoin network hashrate grew a lot since 2020 and Bitcoin mining industry grew dramatically.

[GxSTxV]

That’s something so interesting and stressing  at the same time, once the US government puts their hand something they always ruins it and end it. I don’t think they can effect bitcoin somehow because it will effect also many stuff related to bitcoin, stores, businesses, companies and online services.
But if something really happened and they could cut the electricity for mining bitcoin machines it might be the end of bitcoin and the price will fall badly, maybe they will put extra fees for the electricity related to mining which also can make things bad in crypto market.
I don’t live in united states so it’s hard to predict what can happen next after the finish their data collecting and what decisions they would take against bitcoin mining, can someone explain more about what can happen?

[Myleschetty]

Sooner or later more things that have to do with Bitcoin mining, tax, and payment will be something the US president will have interest in ever since Bitcoin spot ETF has been approved which is something some US senate don't want to see happen so some of this Senate will want to open the eyes of the President to some area that may impact BTC market in some ways.

[hatshepsut93]

This is madness and crazy at the same time. Why they keep torturing Bitcoins like this while there’s a lot of factory that consumes tons of energy and producing waste at the same yet there’s no serious complaint about it despite bunch of global warming advocacy against it.

Because those factories create goods that are useful to society or can be exported, they also create jobs. While Bitcoin mining enriches only the few and not very useful to society as a whole. Plus mining has potential to disrupt the energy grid because mining operations can pop up suddenly and draw a lot of power. There have already been cases in other countries when authorities had to step in and ban mining as it was causing blackouts.

And you're acting as if Biden already banned mining when this is just a survey that it aimed to just study whether there is a negative impact or not.

[wallet4bitcoin]

I first saw it in Twitter:

BREAKING:  The Biden Administration has issued an "emergency" data collection initiative to identify the electricity usage of the #Bitcoin mining industry in USA

Then I saw it on the news: https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-crypto-mining-electricity-survey-energy-department

It is a six month mandatory survey.

Let us hope these people are not trying to come up with something.

Most definitely, they want to consider another revenue generation avenue and industry for the US to keep milking. It's obvious that SEC has opened their eyes to the fact that the potential in the blockchain space.
They are further exploring the way and measure through which they can regulate control over the operation of mining crypto. This too shall pass and blockchain is bigger and better than their antiques.

[franky1]

The University of Cambridge’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index estimated worldwide Bitcoin mining used 121.13 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023. The entire country of the Netherlands, with more than 17 million people, consumed 121.6 terawatt-hours in 2022.
https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/how-much-power-does-crypto-use-the-government-wants-to-know

no one bothers using the asics of 2016 anymore which cambridge still uses in its GUESTIMATES of 121 last year
cambridge still use the s19 range and include many that are inefficient and unprofitable.. which everyone knows people retire those.
no one uses unprofitable hardware. they secondary market sell old hardware for altcoins to use whilst upgrading to latest generation asics to stay profitable

heck.. cambridge still uses a 30 j/thash rate.. although current gen asics (s19-s21) are 21-17 respectively
using current generation(bitmain s21) asics of 3.5kw for 200thash
with network peaking at 540Exahash (emphasis peak=most)

if the network was 540exahash all year
540000000 /200thash = 2700000 asics
2700000 * 3.5kw = 9450000kw/h = 9450mw/h = 9.45gw/h
9.45gw/h = 226.8gw/day = 82,782gw/year = 82.78Tw/y

82 is better then 121


now with that all said..
the 540 was a peak but assumed all year
the actual average hashrate of the year is 374767942.7 (375exa) which is a 57.48tw/year using current gen(s21) asics
the actual average hashrate of the year is 374767942.7 (375exa) which is a 71tw/year using last gen(s19) asics

US uses over 4000TW/year for all electric(residential, business, industry) which would be 80TW/year at  2% rate
but this 2% of american rate (80tw/y) is more then WORLD bitcoin usage.
the amount of bitcoin usage of electric for just american miners is far less than 2%

in short bitcoin does not use 2% of americas electric

[thecodebear]

That kinda sucks cuz its definitely just going to be used to try to make bitcoin look bad.

I very much doubt they are going to dig into the details to see that bitcoin uses a lot of clean energy, bitcoin helps power plants, bitcoin solves energy imbalance issues. Probably just want a big energy consumption number so they can say "bitcoin bad" since they don't actually understand how the mining industry works.

If they understood how mining works environmentalists (me being one) would promote bitcoin mining being used at renewable energy plants, and to solve other energy imbalance issues.

[stompix]

using current generation(bitmain s21) asics of 3.5kw for 200thash

Which Bitmain has started shipping barely 10 days ago but you think all the hashrate is made out of, lol 
Keep trying franky! Meanwhile Riot still miens at rockdale with s17s series!
You do realize at the rate you're throwing's old miners out of the game that basically none of it had time to ROI before it's being replaced?

But you have to love the attitude here!
What do you guys fear?
Everyone said miners run only on green energy, so ...no problem right?
Miners consume less energy than Christmas lights , so, why is everyone scared?

If they understood how mining works environmentalists (me being one) would promote bitcoin mining being used at renewable energy plants, and to solve other energy imbalance issues.

So a 750MW coal power plant at Rockdale and a 350mw at Harding, a 250 gas powerplant at Greenridge, 4 natural gas powerplants in Canada by Hut 8, the gas powerplant at North Bay, 600MW of coal at Merom Generating Station, 300 MW at Whinstone it's all green and environment friendly , right? 

I now know why everyone fears this inquiry!
Because they know that the actual truth is not the truth they want!