Mining consumes too much electricity: One Bitcoin transaction uses enough electricity to power an American household for a week

News: At noon on November 3rd, Beijing time, the price of Bitcoin has exceeded $7,000, which is also accompanied by a sharp increase in the power consumption of Bitcoin mining. Globally, more and more high-energy-consuming mining machines are being used for Bitcoin mining.

An index provided by cryptocurrency analyst Alex De Vries shows that due to the rapid rise in Bitcoin prices, Bitcoin miners can still make a profit even if they consume 24 trillion watt-hours of electricity per year to mine. This electricity consumption is equivalent to the annual level of Nigeria, a country with a population of 186 million.

So for each bitcoin transaction, bitcoin miners consume an average of 215 kilowatt-hours of electricity. (There are currently about 300,000 bitcoin transactions per day.) Considering that the average American household consumes 901 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, each bitcoin transaction consumes enough electricity to power one American household for a week. And on a larger scale, De Vries' index shows that at any given moment, the electricity consumed by bitcoin miners around the world could meet the needs of 2.26 million American households.

In addition, 215 kWh of electricity can fully charge two Tesla batteries, run a high-efficiency refrigerator for a year, or boil 1,872 liters of water.

Bitcoin's impact on the environment should be a cause for concern. Since 2015, Bitcoin's electricity consumption has been much higher than traditional digital payment methods. This is because the price of Bitcoin in US dollars can cover the electricity costs and Bitcoin mining can still be profitable. As the price of Bitcoin rises, miners are adding more computing power to try to get more Bitcoins and transaction fees.

De Vries's model may be inaccurate. It assumes the economic incentives available to miners at a given price level and makes forward-looking predictions about the direction of mining power consumption. But despite this, Bitcoin's power consumption remains a big problem. (Viking)