Bitcoin’s energy use plunges to one-year low
‘Energy consumption of Bitcoin dropped from around 204.5 TWh (terawatt-hour) per year earlier this month, to a low of 130.5 TWh on 19 June, the lowest level in the past year. This marked a decline of over 36% in the energy consumption of the blockchain network’
Energy consumption of the Bitcoin blockchain network, which has been a concern for many, has fallen by up to 35% amid the ongoing ‘crypto winter’, according to trackers who compile information on how much energy Bitcoin transactions consume.
Dutch economist Alex de Vries, noted on his blog Digiconomist, that energy consumption of Bitcoin dropped from around 204.5 TWh (terawatt-hour) per year earlier this month, to a low of 130.5 TWh on 19 June, the lowest level in the past year. This marked a decline of over 36% in the energy consumption of the blockchain network.
Energy consumption of Bitcoin is a key parameter, and shows the volume of Bitcoin tokens being mined by users globally.
Bitcoin miners use powerful hardware such as specialized graphics processing units (GPUs) to power the network. These rigs execute programmes that validate transactions on the blockchain just like Visa and Mastercard do for card-based digital payments.
In crypto, the process of mining that Bitcoin and many other crypto use, called ‘proof of work’, has been flagged as an energy intensive process that can hurt the Earth’s climate in the long run, since most of this energy comes from fossil fuels.
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First Published:26 Jun 2022, 10:33 PM IST
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