Bitcoin consumes large amounts of electricity, the crypto-currency's sustainability

A new Bitcoin Mining Council has been created to improve the crypto-currency's sustainability, following a meeting of "leading" Bitcoin miners and Elon Musk.

The Tesla CEO tweeted the development was "potentially promising".

It's hoped the council will "promote energy usage transparency" and encourage miners to use renewable sources.

The process of creating Bitcoin consumes large amounts of electricity.

Its value fell earlier this month after Tesla withdrew its support of the crypto-currency, citing environmental concerns.

Bitcoin operates on the blockchain, a digital ledger of transactions.

Miners audit Bitcoin transactions in exchange for an opportunity to acquire the digital currency.

It requires enormous computing power, which in turn uses huge amounts of electricity.

Bitcoin's electricity consumption is currently greater than The Netherlands', according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.

Source: https://news.yahoo.com/bitcoin-mining-council-report-renewable-133251397.html

Bitcoin Consumes Less Than Half The Energy Of The Banking Or Gold Industries

 A recently released research report from Galaxy Digital has calculated the energy consumed by the Bitcoin network and then compared it to other industries, including the banking industry. It found that Bitcoin consumes 113.89 terawatt hours (TWh) per year, while the banking industry consumes 263.72 TWh per year.

The report put Bitcoin's energy consumption into perspective by distilling some of the unique characteristics of Bitcoin and how they relate to and impact its energy consumption.

More reading https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/research%3A-bitcoin-consumes-less-than-half-the-energy-of-the-banking-or-gold-industries

(Not only electricity consumption and not only cryptocurrency.)

See how to trace energy consumption by Pro-Quali - Pro-Level Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) platform at http://www.pro-quali.com/features/environmental-management/

Electricity Consumption used to mine bitcoin high

 Bitcoin uses more electricity annually than the whole of Argentina, analysis by Cambridge University suggests.

"Mining" for the cryptocurrency is power-hungry, involving heavy computer calculations to verify transactions.

Cambridge researchers say it consumes around 121.36 terawatt-hours (TWh) a year - and is unlikely to fall unless the value of the currency slumps.

But the rising price offers even more incentive to Bitcoin miners to run more and more machines.

Continue Reading: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56012952

Elon Musk: Tesla will no longer accept bitcoin over climate concerns

 "We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel," Mr Musk wrote.

"Cryptocurrency is a good idea... but this cannot come at great cost to the environment."

Bitcoin fell by more than 10% after the tweet, while Tesla shares also dipped.

Continue Reading https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57096305