Bitcoin: Power consumption continues to rise - here's how

Bitcoins are made by mining. And the bigger the blockchain gets, the more computing power is needed to create new blocks. This creates a long-term problem, as power consumption is already reaching alarming levels and continues to increase.

Bitcoin power consumption is visibly becoming a real environmental burden.

Bitcoin power consumption: these are the numbers

According to the latest estimates, the power consumption caused by bitcoin mining amounts to 90 terawatt hours. This compares to just under 74 terawatt hours in 2019.

1. Smaller European countries like Serbia consume the same amount of electricity. A few years ago, electricity consumption was less than half of current levels.
2. Each individual Bitcoin transaction consumes nearly 240 kilowatt-hours. This is equivalent to the power consumption of a medium-sized apartment in Germany, per month.
3. So the data centers, many of which are located in China, do not exactly contribute to the environment. It should be borne in mind that electricity consumption will continue to rise as mining consumes more and more power and Bitcoin owners carry out more transactions.

From an environmental point of view, Bitcoin is a problem that needs to be solved. One day, when the total number of all Bitcoins is reached, at least the electricity consumption by mining will be eliminated. That's already a big item, yet the nature of the blockchain is to demand a lot of hardware power. That's why the search for alternative technologies that require significantly less power is always an issue.