Currently, our estimated annual electricity consumption is 54.6 TWh. That's massive when you compare it to Israel's 2015 total energy consumption, 52.86 TWh. Each transaction you make with bitcoin? That's 13.6 US households that could have been powered for a day, and a potential additional 191.17 kg of CO2 carbon footprint. EACH. TRANSACTION. Bitcoin itself is amounting for 0.24% of the world's electricity, which is staggering that we're even approaching 1% to begin with. This consumption is potentially resulting in 25,935 kt of CO2 annually (although a portion of the power is coming from renewable sources, which reduces this number).
it doesn't make sense to discuss these numbers in absolute terms. for example, we've seen mining operations flood the pacific northwest and other hydropower-rich areas. not only is this a low-carbon resource, but it brings up the issue of generation vs production. most energy cannot be efficiently stored. power plants generate power beyond demand to prevent energy shortages, then we have to consider renewables. there's quite a lot of excess energy that's already generated and must be used. power plants sell it to operations (including bitcoin miners) cheap to keep it from being wasted. these calculations make no effort to account for the idea that bitcoin miners rationally seek out regions where energy is abundant because they can use the excess supply at a discount.
the digiconomist report seems heavily biased towards an assumption that chinese mining operations are primarily using coal-fired energy, even though they lack any data to support that theory and other reports that the majority of operations are based on hydropower-rich sichuan contradict those assumptions.
I doubt sharing this will make much of an impact, but I want to hear your thoughts. Was I the only one too busy waving around enthusiastic posters about the ~possibilities of bitcoin~ or is there any among the community who's similarly surprised? Are there any movements or practices already being conducted within our ecosystem that's being initiated to counteract this increasing load on the environment around us?
think about gold mining and production or the banking industry. these also use incredible amounts of energy. bitcoin has one advantage over them---miners can pick up and flock to regions where energy generation is cheaper and more sustainable.
as long as humans continue to use money, this problem isn't going away.