Blockchain High Energy Consumption

High energy consumption bitcoin is one of the most popular applications of the blockchain and indeed the first one.

Blockchain high energy consumption.

The high electricity consumption of bitcoin has been widely reported with one widely reported and disputed estimate having it consume at peak more electricity than 159 countries. Ethereum which consumes between a 25 50 of the energy bitcoin does is currently. Study reveals bitcoin s electricity consumption is underestimated and finds the network represents close to half of the current global data centre electricity use august 2020. Alex de vries a bitcoin specialist at pwc estimates that the current global power consumption for the servers that run bitcoin s software is a minimum of 2 55 gigawatts gw which amounts to.

If blockchain technology is going to revolutionize how we transact with each other computer scientists need to solve one big problem. The bitcoin energy consumption index provides the latest estimate of the total energy consumption of the bitcoin network. The average yearly energy consumption of the bitcoin network exceeds that of the entire nation of switzerland. However some efforts to reduce blockchain energy consumption take a different approach.

The bitcoin core needs around 200 gb storage space in every node that is part of. Blockchains use massive amounts of energy but there s a plan to fix that making cryptocurrencies less energy hungry will mean reengineering how blockchains work. Rise in consumption in my 2016 article socialism and the blockchain i estimated bitcoin mining s annual energy use at 3 38 terawatt hours twh which i equated to the total 2014 annual consumption of jamaica. They aim to use blockchain to promote energy efficient ways of getting around such as electric vehicles.

Then the blockchain spurs people to adopt eco friendly environmentally conscious behaviors that help offset the energy used. It can consume way too much energy.