The IEA’s report [1] shows that the average carbon intensity of the two cryptocurrencies from December 2017 to March 2018 was around 108% of the average carbon intensity of the global economy. To put it in perspective, the average electricity consumed by the global economy was around 83 GW.
According to the IEA’s Annual Review of Energy 2017, the world’s use of energy increased by around 3% in 2016. Shouldn’t that have been a big story? To be sure, 3% is not a huge number of increase. However, that increase is a lot higher than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who said that the world will increase its energy demand by just 1%
Bitcoin is still the most popular cryptocurrency making headlines, but it is beginning to lose market share to other alternatives. The latest data from Cambridge University and the International Energy Agency shows that the bitcoin network has begun to decline in terms of its carbon footprint.
According to publicly available data from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Alternative Finance and the International Energy Agency (IEA), the carbon intensity of bitcoin (BTC) may have already peaked.
The environmental impact of bitcoin’s energy consumption is a popular topic of conversation among critics and journalists writing about cryptocurrencies. But given the available data, Hass McCook, a retired professional engineer, thinks Bitcoin’s carbon emissions peaked a few months ago.
McCook deconstructed the data and defended the conclusion in an article published Friday on the Bitcoin Magazine website:
As a result, bitcoin issuance peaked a few months ago. Fortunately, after banning bitcoin mining, China has begun an aggressive move towards nule transmission. In the worst case scenario, in five years bitcoin’s emissions are expected to be less than a third of today’s, and in ten years bitcoin will emit nothing at all.
BitAll’s bitcoin mining infrastructure has been built over the past 12 years and gives miners a second-class advantage by allowing them to use the latest and most sustainable green energy generation technology to mine bitcoins.
Data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index shows that the intensity of global Bitcoin mining (carbon emissions per unit of electricity consumed) is lower than the average for the entire global energy system. The world average is 463 grams of CO2 emissions per kilowatt hour. Bitcoin miners mine an average of 418 grams.
According to the IEA, the energy intensity of the global power grid peaked last year if the energy economy maintains the levels expected for 2021 and beyond.
It is intended that the computers running Bitcoin Core to validate and add new blocks to the Bitcoin blockchain consume a certain amount of energy to correctly guess the input data for the SHA-256 encrypted hash.
SHA-256 (short for Secure Hashing Algorithm) is a one-way hash function published by the US National Security Agency in 2001, and is an integral part of the Bitcoin architecture. Computers verify the guess by entering it into the algorithm and checking that it matches the hash of the previous block. The first node to correctly guess the hash can place the next transaction block and reward the bitcoin miner with the newly generated bitcoin.
This proof-of-work, or PoW, mechanism qualifies nodes to participate in the network and forces miners to risk energy costs and lost operating costs for no gain if their computer tries to cheat the network rules.
Some opponents and even proponents of bitcoin claim that its energy use poses environmental risks and may contribute to man-made global warming. This year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the electric automaker would accept BTC for Teslas before backing down.
Musk said Tesla will start accepting bitcoins again if it is reasonably confirmed that 50% or more of the energy used by the miners comes from clean energy sources.
According to McCook, most claims about bitcoin issuance are exaggerated:
One of the most debunked claims, but still widely quoted in scientific circles, is that bitcoin alone will increase the temperature of the planet by 2 degrees Celsius.
According to a Bitcoin Mining Council report released this week, based on survey responses, energy-efficient bitcoin mining technologies will account for 56% of the global total by the second quarter of 2021.A report by the Carbon Tracker Initiative shared Monday shows that the price of bitcoin has a big impact on heating homes, and now that bitcoin has a price that is higher than ever, it is also getting more and more energy to keep it running.. Read more about cambridge bitcoin mining map and let us know what you think.
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