Bitcoin mining uses energy. Bitcoin does not. In this discussion, it is not correct to ask "will this affect Bitcoin?", because it is only relevant to Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin needs miners. Bitcoin does not need millions of miners hashing at 800 million trillion hashes per second. Bitcoin works equally well with 1000 miners at 4000 trillion hashes per second, using less energy than a single Tesla car
Some years ago, regulators ran a public relations campaign against Bitcoin, advocating several perceived flaws. Only one of these flaws gained any public recognition - Bitcoin mining energy use
Since then, anti-Bitcoin campaigns have focused on this single issue, as if they care. But the real goal is to shut down Bitcoin
Bitcoin mining fact: Bitcoin mines a fixed amount of BTC per day. Unlike mineral extraction, if more miners join the network, they don't make more Bitcoin. They reduce the amount of Bitcoin earned by every miner. The fixed amount automatically halves every 210,000 blocks
Bitcoin economics: if the dollar cost of mining Bitcoin is less than the dollars received for selling the mined Bitcoin, the miner makes a profit
Most of the cost is electricity, which is dependent on the per-kW-hour cost of electricity, the number of kW-hours per trillion hashes (efficiency of miner's hardware), and the number of hashes
The income is a fixed amount of BTC per day, shared among all the miners. A miner's dollar income depends on the dollar price of BTC and his share of the fixed daily amount of mined BTC
Why did energy use increase? Because the price of Bitcoin increased
If the world of governments and regulators wanted to reduce Bitcoin energy use, what could they do?
- reduce the dollar value of Bitcoin
- increase electricity prices for Bitcoin miners
BTC price manipulation is probably outside the scope of regulators, for several reasons, most of them obvious
Electricity price surcharges would reduce Bitcoin mining in proportion to the size of the surcharge. If Bitcoin miners have recently converged to a $0.06 per kW-hour price for profitability, increase the price to $6 to reduce electricity consumption by 99%
On a regional basis, this already happens (although not so high as $6)
Where are these places with $0.06 electricity prices? Nearly all are in locations with hydroelectric generation, where the supply is much greater than consumption
The miners arrive, find some land, pay for electricity supply to connect the shipping container, warehouse, or shed. The word gets out - $0.06 electricity, great place for Bitcoin mining. More miners arrive. In upper New York State, and north of the border in Quebec, 6 months after the arrival of Bitcoin miners exploiting cheap, plentiful hydroelectricity, all the surplus electricity was allocated, causing shortages for the regular consumers and price increases. The hydroelectricity supplier in New York banned the miners. In Quebec, they banned new miners, and eventually chose to limit the amount miners can use, and added a price surcharge specifically for Bitcoin miners
Will there be a worldwide Electricity price surcharge for Bitcoin miners, to address these emissions/climate issues? No, there will not, because the regulators' goal is to kill Bitcoin, not to reduce the electricity consumption of Bitcoin mining
It's a fake concern. They're all liars