{"id":374668,"date":"2019-03-14T13:09:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T13:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktsl888.com\/?p=374668"},"modified":"2019-03-25T18:05:34","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T18:05:34","slug":"bitcoins-energy-consumption-equalled-that-of-hungary-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktsl888.com\/news\/bitcoins-energy-consumption-equalled-that-of-hungary-in-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin’s Energy Consumption Equalled That of Hungary in 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin<\/a> miners consumed as much as energy in 2018 as Hungary, according to Alex de Vries.<\/p>\n

The researcher at the Netherlands’ PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) branch studied<\/a> bitcoin’s global energy consumption all across the year. He found that existing hydropower projects were not sufficient in sustaining the cryptocurrency mining operations, adding that the bitcoin network demanded as much as 62.3 TWh power. The power of such scale could single-handedly serve a Hungary or a Switzerland.<\/p>\n

More than Banks<\/h2>\n

The revelation followed years of debates about whether or not bitcoin is anti-environment. Skeptics criticize the decentralized financial network for contributing to global\u00a0warming because each node in the system requires electricity to sustain itself. That is how machines process mathematical problems – by injecting vast computing power – that eventually mine and confirm bitcoin transactions on the network. As a result, the entire mining operation generates heat, as well as increase power demand supplied by fossil power plants.<\/p>\n

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On the other hand, supports argue that banks, which bitcoin aims to replace, consume far more resources with a massive carbon footprint. Per them, banks issue paper cash using environmental-unfriendly chemicals, consume power with their location-bound local offices and server warehouses, and allow their employees to travel using gas-inefficient armored cars, etc.<\/p>\n

But De Vries belongs to the skeptics’ lot. In his journal, the blockchain researcher wrote that bitcoin miners were consuming 12,000 times more resources than the maximum carbon footprint of transactions processed by the banking industry. He also said that bitcoin supporters switched to renewable energy, but that didn’t correctly solve the issue.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin Can Never Be Green<\/h2>\n
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21\/ #Bitcoin<\/a>\u2019s utilization of the electrical capacity consumes magnitudes less electricity than existing fiat systems which not only have power requirements banking infrastructure, but the military and political machina. The energy tradeoff is a \u201cnet positive\u201d outcome. pic.twitter.com\/uB2bnx9IKI<\/a><\/p>\n

— Dan Held (@danheld) September 14, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n