Will Bitcoin Miners Leave You in the Cold This Winter?
Nobody should be surprised at reports of rising frustration over energy costs resulting from the cryptocurrency’s power drain.
Bitcoin mining in Russia.
Source: Bloomberg
Bitcoin is a virtual currency with a very physical footprint in the form of the big, power-hungry facilities that have sprouted up to mine it. The size of this footprint and its impact on the environment have become a hotly contested issue: The network’s power consumption this year will likely be a whopping 91 terawatt-hours, roughly equivalent to Pakistan’s, according to BloombergNEF. Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk have criticized the industry for its addiction to cheap power, which is often derived from fossil fuels. Not exactly in tune with our net-zero times.
The pushback from cryptocurrency miners is that they’re increasingly shifting to renewable energy sources and moving out of coal-heavy countries like China — which has introduced a blanket crypto ban. They also say they will do the world a favor by encouraging new solar and wind farms centered around Bitcoin.