It would be wrong to assume that it is only the price of Bitcoin that has increased over the year- the consumption of electricity has increased too. The value of this cryptocurrency recently came down below $50,000- yet the energy that is required to mine it is still growing at an alarming rate. Currently, the amount of energy that is required to mine BTC has enough carbon footprint to match Argentina. This data has been collected from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index- which is a tool used by researchers to check up on the energy use of this cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Requires A Lot of Energy To Mine
The consumption of energy is increasing pretty fast, as major interest has come in for the company- with several institutions at Wall Street being major benefactors in the rise of BTCs value. It has been expected that most of the high-end investors would be looking to put their cash on such an investment- because it will definitely grow to huge limits in the near future.
Interestingly, the current decline in the price of BTC has led to quite a dent in the fortune of Elon Musk. If that wasn’t all Musk was worried about, the mission of the company is to bring about a future with no emission of carbon. In fact, this cryptocurrency is asking major questions to those corporations and governments that are simply looking to do away with carbon footprints.
The mining of bitcoin has always been one of those processes which require a lot of energy. When one mine for this cryptocurrency, they are simply working complex mathematical problems which would create newer bitcoins. According to reports, there is a limited amount of bitcoins that can be mined- around 21 million. Currently, 18.5 million BTC have already been mined.
The unfortunate part of this saga- bitcoin needs a super-powered computer to mine it. And it goes without saying that this computer uses a lot of energy.
