I think researchers should also be interested in what Bitcoin contribute to the world and compared it to how much energy it uses to know whether it's really worth it. The disadvantages should cause little to no problems to the environment... And the advantages should far outweigh the disadvantages in order to be considered less risky or fairly safe. Wish they can really provide strong proofs that the energy usage has lots consequences for the environment .
By the way, I hope Bitcoin becomes more energy efficient, environmentally friendly, useful and secure in the future.
Topic: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index - The impact of BTC in the World - page 2. (Read 312 times)
March 03, 2021, 05:38:20 AM
March 03, 2021, 05:31:32 AM
0.6% is not a very large amount. Also, the proportion of renewable sources in electricity production is growing with every passing year. Why no one is talking about the environmental footprint of minting coins and printing banknotes? How much ecological damage is done by the mining of metals that are being used to mint coins? Also, how much forest is cut down every year, for printing banknotes? Once mined, Bitcoin is indestructible. On the other hand, banknotes and coins need to be replaced time to time.
March 03, 2021, 03:56:14 AM
If the bitcoin sector is only responsible for a measly .59% of electricity consumption then there should be nothing to be worried about. I would say that the long-term feasibility of bitcoin's power consumption can't be clear but if we can manage to keep it at a certain price point as an equation was made by a user in this thread that concludes with bitcoin electricity consumption reaching a 3.8% if the price was around 500 thousand per bitcoin which is still not happening for a long time so I would lean more on the fact that it will be feasible.
The user who made the thread.
The user who made the thread.
Bitcoin Network Power Consumption Estimate
March 03, 2021, 02:38:43 AM
Your calculations are straightforward, but the usage is not proportional to the price of a bitcoin because the price of electricity is not inelastic. As the usage goes up, the cost of electricity will increase more quickly.
BTW, you can do exponents like this: 2e
BTW, you can do exponents like this: 2e
March 02, 2021, 10:07:32 PM
Not sure how the comparison makes sense at all. If anything you wouldn't take the energy used to mine that amount of Bitcoins but you would take the energy that is used to mine the block that the specific transaction is included in. The Bitcoins are mined regardless and the carbon footprint is distributed on those who happens to use those UTXOs so it makes little sense to count the energy used to mine it. Tesla is a tech company that ventures into EV but their primary concern is not to tackle climate change; else they would stop producing luxury cars and instead focus on vehicles which can accommodate much more people/sqft. Doesn't help that some countries are using non-renewable sources which would just exacerbate the problem as they're thinking it's good for the environment but it is not in actuality.
Not really that big of an issue. Bitcoin mining is most profitable if the miners are able to siphon off the excess energy that energy companies produces. It's no secret that most of them are situated near power plants which produces clean energy so the environmental impact is probably blown out of proportion.
Not really that big of an issue. Bitcoin mining is most profitable if the miners are able to siphon off the excess energy that energy companies produces. It's no secret that most of them are situated near power plants which produces clean energy so the environmental impact is probably blown out of proportion.
March 02, 2021, 09:55:34 PM
Bitcoin Network Power Consumption Estimate
First, note that Bitcoin mining efficiency does not matter when estimating the trend of the power consumption of the entire Bitcoin network.
The power consumption of the entire network depends on five things:
x = the exchange rate [USD/BTC]
e = the era [0..32]
f = the average fees per hour [BTC/hour]
c = the average cost of energy [USD/kWh]
r = the average percentage of income miners spend on energy [unit less ratio]
From the era we can calculate the average hourly BTC subsidy rate:
s = 6(50/2e) [BTC/hour]
And the average amount of BTC all the miners in the world make per hour:
b = s + f [BTC/hour]
From this we can calculate the amount of USD per hour all the miners in the world make:
u = bx [USD/hour]
Given the worldwide average percentage of income miners spend on energy the amount spent worldwide on energy is:
ur [USD/hour]
And finally, the worldwide power consumption is given by:
P = ur/c [kW]
= bxr/c [kW]
= (s + f)xr/c [kW]
= (6(50/2e) + f)xr/c [kW]
Notice that mining efficiency does not enter into this equation and does not matter.
You do not need to know or estimate the average overall efficiency of the mining network unless you want to calculate the difficulty and/or hash rate.
Let’s put in some numbers:
x = $50,000; the exchange rate [USD/BTC]
e = 3; the era [0..32]
f = 5; the average fees per hour [BTC/hour]
c = $0.03; the average cost of energy [USD/kWh]
r = 0.8; the average percentage of income miners spend on energy [unit less ratio]
P = (6(50/2e) + f)xr/c [kW]
= (6(50/23) + 5) 50000 ( 0.8 ) / 0.03 = 56,666,666 [kW] = 57 Gigawatts
World power production/consumption is about 15,000 Gigawatts.
Bitcoin mining will trend toward 57/15,000 = 0.38 % of world power production given these values.
This scales by BTC price so:
BTC at $500,000 means power consumption would trend to 3.8% of worldwide power.
BTC at $5,000,000 means power consumption would trend to 38% of worldwide power.
First, note that Bitcoin mining efficiency does not matter when estimating the trend of the power consumption of the entire Bitcoin network.
The power consumption of the entire network depends on five things:
x = the exchange rate [USD/BTC]
e = the era [0..32]
f = the average fees per hour [BTC/hour]
c = the average cost of energy [USD/kWh]
r = the average percentage of income miners spend on energy [unit less ratio]
From the era we can calculate the average hourly BTC subsidy rate:
s = 6(50/2e) [BTC/hour]
And the average amount of BTC all the miners in the world make per hour:
b = s + f [BTC/hour]
From this we can calculate the amount of USD per hour all the miners in the world make:
u = bx [USD/hour]
Given the worldwide average percentage of income miners spend on energy the amount spent worldwide on energy is:
ur [USD/hour]
And finally, the worldwide power consumption is given by:
P = ur/c [kW]
= bxr/c [kW]
= (s + f)xr/c [kW]
= (6(50/2e) + f)xr/c [kW]
Notice that mining efficiency does not enter into this equation and does not matter.
You do not need to know or estimate the average overall efficiency of the mining network unless you want to calculate the difficulty and/or hash rate.
Let’s put in some numbers:
x = $50,000; the exchange rate [USD/BTC]
e = 3; the era [0..32]
f = 5; the average fees per hour [BTC/hour]
c = $0.03; the average cost of energy [USD/kWh]
r = 0.8; the average percentage of income miners spend on energy [unit less ratio]
P = (6(50/2e) + f)xr/c [kW]
= (6(50/23) + 5) 50000 ( 0.8 ) / 0.03 = 56,666,666 [kW] = 57 Gigawatts
World power production/consumption is about 15,000 Gigawatts.
Bitcoin mining will trend toward 57/15,000 = 0.38 % of world power production given these values.
This scales by BTC price so:
BTC at $500,000 means power consumption would trend to 3.8% of worldwide power.
BTC at $5,000,000 means power consumption would trend to 38% of worldwide power.
March 02, 2021, 07:10:25 PM
According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI)[1], if we look at the total electricity consumption of the world - 20 863 TWh - BTC is responsible for 0.59 % of it. That's... quite something already.
The link that I've shared contains tons of useful and really interesting information regarding in what fuels the whole network(s) that sustain the activity behind BTC and I though it would be interesting to share here (and hopefully generate discussion). Currently BTC stands at rank 28, surpassing countries such as Norway, Finland, Belgium, Greece.... This is nothing new but the fact of having all this data gathered up in a visual way makes us wonder what the future may hold for BTC in regards to sustainability.
We can reference as well the recent purchase of BTC from Tesla which makes it seem like that Tesla isn't so worried about CO2 when talking about future assets and their liquidity. In fact, Franck Leroy (I know he's an ecologist, but his math makes sense)) even went to the detail of computing what could represent the actual possibility of buying a Tesla with BTC and the results are riveting - "buying a Tesla in Bitcoins cancels 4 times the CO2 savings for its whole lifetime"[2].
What do you guys think? Long term sustainability may be feasible (as long as technology can keep up with the increased difficulty of the network) or are we going to see BTC climb even faster the rank in the near future?
[1] https://cbeci.org/cbeci/comparisons
[2] https://medium.com/coinmonks/buying-a-tesla-in-bitcoins-cancels-4-times-the-co2-savings-for-its-whole-lifetime-c28b042e3b9a
The link that I've shared contains tons of useful and really interesting information regarding in what fuels the whole network(s) that sustain the activity behind BTC and I though it would be interesting to share here (and hopefully generate discussion). Currently BTC stands at rank 28, surpassing countries such as Norway, Finland, Belgium, Greece.... This is nothing new but the fact of having all this data gathered up in a visual way makes us wonder what the future may hold for BTC in regards to sustainability.
We can reference as well the recent purchase of BTC from Tesla which makes it seem like that Tesla isn't so worried about CO2 when talking about future assets and their liquidity. In fact, Franck Leroy (I know he's an ecologist, but his math makes sense)) even went to the detail of computing what could represent the actual possibility of buying a Tesla with BTC and the results are riveting - "buying a Tesla in Bitcoins cancels 4 times the CO2 savings for its whole lifetime"[2].
What do you guys think? Long term sustainability may be feasible (as long as technology can keep up with the increased difficulty of the network) or are we going to see BTC climb even faster the rank in the near future?
[1] https://cbeci.org/cbeci/comparisons
[2] https://medium.com/coinmonks/buying-a-tesla-in-bitcoins-cancels-4-times-the-co2-savings-for-its-whole-lifetime-c28b042e3b9a
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