Bitcoin Mining Now Consuming More Electricity Than 159 Countries

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 11/30/2017 09:33 AM | source: | 82 comment(s)

Bitcoin’s recent rise and coverage missed out one of the more interesting and unintended consequences, the surge in global electricity. Bitcoin mining is now using more electricity than 159 individual countries.

According to Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, as of Monday November 20th, 2017 Bitcoin’s current estimated annual electricity consumption stands at 29.05TWh, reports powertocompare:

That’s the equivalent of 0.13% of total global electricity consumption. While that may not sound like a lot, it means Bitcoin mining is now using more electricity than 159 individual countries (as you can see from the map above). More than Ireland or Nigeria. If Bitcoin miners were a country they’d rank 61st in the world in terms of electricity consumption. Here are a few other interesting facts about Bitcoin mining and electricity consumption:

In the past month alone, Bitcoin mining electricity consumption is estimated to have increased by 29.98%
If it keeps increasing at this rate, Bitcoin mining will consume all the world’s electricity by February 2020.
Estimated annualized global mining revenues: $7.2 billion USD (£5.4 billion)
Estimated global mining costs: $1.5 billion USD (£1.1 billion)
Number of Americans who could be powered by bitcoin mining: 2.4 million (more than the population of Houston)
Number of Britons who could be powered by bitcoin mining: 6.1 million (more than the population of Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Bradford, Liverpool, Bristol, Croydon, Coventry, Leicester & Nottingham combined) Or Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Bitcoin Mining consumes more electricity than 12 US states (Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming)

All maps created using Mapchart.net. For the full breakdown of data, please keep reading.

Bitcoin Mining Electricity Consumption Vs Countries

The map at the top of the page shows, which countries currently consume more or less electricity than that consumed by global Bitcoin mining. The map below shows how much more or less bitcoin mining energy consumption compares to each countries energy usage with 100% being equal. E.g. Ireland currently consumes an estimated 25 TWh of electricity per year, so global Bitcoin mining consumption is 116%, or 16% more than they consume. The UK consumes an estimated 309 TWh of electricity per year so global Bitcoin mining consumption is only equivalent to 9.4% of the UK total.

As mentioned, above the data for Bitcoin mining energy consumption comes from the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index. You can read about their assumptions here. Electricity consumption data mostly comes from the CIA via Wikipedia and is mostly for 2014, since that’s the most recent year available. Unlike some other sources it includes, residential, commercial and industrial use, so may be higher than other figures quoted elsewhere. While Bitcoin Mining is only currently consuming 0.13% of the world’s electricity output, it’s growing incredibly quickly. The Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index estimates consumption has increased by 29.98% over the past month. If that growth rate were to continue, and countries did not add any new power generating capacity, Bitcoin mining would:

Be greater than UK electricity consumption by October 2018 (309 TWh)
Be greater than US electricity consumption by July 2019 (3,913 TWh)
Consume all the world’s electricity by February 2020. (21,776 TWh)

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ladcrooks
Senior Member

Posts: 369
Joined: 2016-12-29

#5496857 Posted on: 11/30/2017 04:58 PM

now watch this, very interesting

https://www.ted.com/talks/michael-shellenberger-how-fear-of-nuclear-power-is-hurting-the-environment

D3M1G0D
Senior Member

Posts: 2049
Joined: 2017-03-10

#5496859 Posted on: 11/30/2017 05:05 PM

Really kind of sad that this is the reality. If this were Gridcoin, I'd be fine with this because at least that encourages something useful. But people who mine for Bitcoin and Ethereum are just in it for themselves. At least on one positive note, the hardware they buy helps give AMD and Nvidia more revenue...

The concept behind cryptocurrencies is good, but once investors got involved it ended up becoming just another profit-making venture. The more investors get involved the higher the price, and the higher the price the more miners get involved and the more electricity is used.

tsunami231
Senior Member

Posts: 9871
Joined: 2003-05-24

#5496872 Posted on: 11/30/2017 05:25 PM

Trying to tackle climate change and then the miners use sh*tloads of energy... well done

pretty sure everyone still things this is a "myth" or it not "there" problem. there kids and there kids kids will enjoy that issue cause its not "there" problem to care about. Lot of sarcasim in this statement

the Donald Sutherland movie "Virus" said it best " humans are a virus" and planet is suffering.

schmidtbag
Senior Member

Posts: 4640
Joined: 2012-11-10

#5496873 Posted on: 11/30/2017 05:27 PM

Sarcastic or not, there are sadly too many people who honestly believe climate change isn't real.

Solfaur
Senior Member

Posts: 7209
Joined: 2005-08-10

#5496878 Posted on: 11/30/2017 05:37 PM

World's going to shit anyway, might as well speed things up a little. :rolleyes:

AsiJu
Senior Member

Posts: 5877
Joined: 2010-10-16

#5496891 Posted on: 11/30/2017 06:32 PM

Yeah well, we always knew technology was going to be our downfall. Just didn't guess it would happen like this... damn you nerds!

Wait.... oh crap!

EdInk
Member

Posts: 98
Joined: 2016-03-30

#5496896 Posted on: 11/30/2017 07:05 PM

I see GPU Tax hitting the UK soon

Bansaku
Senior Member

Posts: 155
Joined: 2009-08-20

#5496906 Posted on: 11/30/2017 07:34 PM

Sarcastic or not, there are sadly too many people who honestly believe climate change isn't real.

It's not that people don't think it's real, it's that human activity has little to no bearing on the Earth's climate. NASA just came out yesterday (maybe the day before) and says according to their own satellite readings, the Earth's temperature (overall) hasn't significantly budged in 23 years. My own observation coincides with their data. In fact, NASA recently came out and bluntly said (and I paraphrase) " The Media and NGOs are pushing a false narrative by using our DATA, manipulated, and present it as facts to enforce their own agendas. " In other words, NASA is saying CO2 and climate change is BS and is blown WAAAAAY out of proportion.

FACT: The more CO2 we burn, the greener the Earth becomes. This has been measured by satellites over the past 40 years. There is 110% increase in the amount of plant life since the turn of the 20th Century. Ever been to a coal plant? The first thing you'd notice is how lush and green the surrounding area is. Remember, CO2 is literally plant food, and is essential for the continuation of the production of oxygen.

FACT 2: Since the Earth has been able to sustain life as we know it, the planetary average in temperature was 24°C. As of today, it's slightly above 14°C. Technically we are still in the tail end of an ice age as we still have glaciers in regions that should not (i.e. B.C.). At the rate the Earth is warming, our great great great grandkid's kids won't even see remotely close to the 24°C average.

FACT 3: If we stop ALL industry and completely stop artificially creating CO2 (we still need to exhale eh) for 100 years the impact on the Earth's temperature would be nil.

It's NOT about believing whether or not Climate Change is real, it's the REAL factors that people ignore, while pushing their own agendas with false facts and manipulated graphs. The Earth's temperature has fluctuated greatly for what, 5 Billion years? No shit climate change is real, we just are not the problem.

Man-made environmental change? Now THAT is something very real!

tsunami231
Senior Member

Posts: 9871
Joined: 2003-05-24

#5496913 Posted on: 11/30/2017 07:56 PM

Sarcastic or not, there are sadly too many people who honestly believe climate change isn't real.

sadlly is not that they dont beleive it, its more of "they" all dont see it issue so they see the need to do anything about it let alone "spend" money fix it in 20 years if i still alive the problem will be real and big issue that cant be stoped

Frozendarkheart
Junior Member

Posts: 2
Joined: 2017-06-28

#5496917 Posted on: 11/30/2017 08:13 PM

It's not that people don't think it's real, it's that human activity has little to no bearing on the Earth's climate. NASA just came out yesterday (maybe the day before) and says according to their own satellite readings, the Earth's temperature (overall) hasn't significantly budged in 23 years. My own observation coincides with their data. In fact, NASA recently came out and bluntly said (and I paraphrase) " The Media and NGOs are pushing a false narrative by using our DATA, manipulated, and present it as facts to enforce their own agendas. " In other words, NASA is saying CO2 and climate change is BS and is blown WAAAAAY out of proportion.

FACT: The more CO2 we burn, the greener the Earth becomes. This has been measured by satellites over the past 40 years. There is 110% increase in the amount of plant life since the turn of the 20th Century. Ever been to a coal plant? The first thing you'd notice is how lush and green the surrounding area is. Remember, CO2 is literally plant food, and is essential for the continuation of the production of oxygen.

FACT 2: Since the Earth has been able to sustain life as we know it, the planetary average in temperature was 24°C. As of today, it's slightly above 14°C. Technically we are still in the tail end of an ice age as we still have glaciers in regions that should not (i.e. B.C.). At the rate the Earth is warming, our great great great grandkid's kids won't even see remotely close to the 24°C average.

FACT 3: If we stop ALL industry and completely stop artificially creating CO2 (we still need to exhale eh) for 100 years the impact on the Earth's temperature would be nil.

It's NOT about believing whether or not Climate Change is real, it's the REAL factors that people ignore, while pushing their own agendas with false facts and manipulated graphs. The Earth's temperature has fluctuated greatly for what, 5 Billion years? No crap climate change is real, we just are not the problem.

Man-made environmental change? Now THAT is something very real!

And do you have any evidence? You clearly state stuff as facts but fails to provide any hard evidence. Show us or post a link to scientific articles stating that said facts you mentioned. Also, let me remind you those articles needed to be launched on reliable journals and peer review scrutinized.

Now, I'm not saying I believe the climate change is 100% caused by humans, but what I do know is both groups (the climate change caused by humans and the climate change is caused by nature, or climate and anti-climate) have their reasons and "agendas". Let also remind you that NASA is, AFAIK, an USA agency, and the president of the USA happens to be a known anti-climate supporter. Now do your math.

D3M1G0D
Senior Member

Posts: 2049
Joined: 2017-03-10

#5496918 Posted on: 11/30/2017 08:14 PM

I've searched the NASA website but don't see this anywhere (their site only reinforces the validity of man-made climate change). Do you have a source for this?

Kaarme
Senior Member

Posts: 1757
Joined: 2013-03-10

#5496921 Posted on: 11/30/2017 08:23 PM

Now if only they'd start posting how much electricity electric cars use so people stop thinking they're "zero emissions" =D

I'm fairly sure that if you note the amount of power a power plant produces, and then collect a pile of internal combustion cars until you reach the same output, the car horde will produce more emissions. You need to keep in mind that when you rev the car engine to the max to reach the top engine output, it's not even as "clean" anymore as it would be under normal cruising circumstances. So, if you wanted to keep it cleaner, you'd need even more cars! Then start to calculate how much maintenance the army of cars requires compared to the power plant, including lubrication and whatnot. If emissions need to be cut further, it's far easier to deal with a single power plant than thousands of individual cars with stubborn owners.

Of course I'm talking about a power plant in a civilized country, not a country with no enforced environmental regulations.

So, yeah, they aren't zero emission, but they are better and more manageable.

PCElite
Senior Member

Posts: 404
Joined: 2011-12-07

#5496956 Posted on: 11/30/2017 10:45 PM

Mr.Robot save us from Evil Coin.

WalterDasTrevas
Senior Member

Posts: 143
Joined: 2011-07-30

#5496976 Posted on: 12/01/2017 01:08 AM

I've searched the NASA website but don't see this anywhere (their site only reinforces the validity of man-made climate change). Do you have a source for this?

He saw on twitter, Donald Trump posted THE real info, and we all know that all scientific news is actually "fake news", but Republicans only speak the truth, after all, US conservative Christian politicians are very concerned about the truth .

airbud7
Senior Member

Posts: 7662
Joined: 2011-07-20

#5496981 Posted on: 12/01/2017 01:58 AM

I see your from Brazil...Hows the economy down there?

PS: Tell Rousseff I said hey...

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