All manner of green bitcoin mining projects are being initiated in a bid to reduce the number one cryptocurrency’s energy consumption. However, the current crypto bear market also appears to be helping greatly in this respect.
The current crypto bear market may have drastically reduced the portfolio holdings of those invested in the sector, but at the same time it has greatly helped to diminish the energy footprint of cryptocurrencies that use the proof-of-work consensus.
Bitcoin is obviously the major cryptocurrency in this respect, and according to Digiconomist, a platform that tracks digital trends from an economic perspective, bitcoin’s energy consumption has fallen off a cliff in the month of June, going from 204 TWh per year, to 133 TWh per year currently.
According to the bitcoin energy consumption chart taken from the Digiconomist website, this is by far the biggest reduction in energy consumed since the site started tracking bitcoin’s energy use back in early 2017.
Source: Digiconomist.net
The site also shares its estimation of bitcoin’s annualised footprints. It states that bitcoin’s carbon footprint is 74.33 metric tons, comparable to that of Colombia. Bitcoin’s annualised electrical energy is estimated at 133.27 TWh, which is comparable to the power consumption of Argentina.
According to the same website, ethereum has also drastically reduced its energy consumption, which fell from 94 TWh in May, to around 50 TWh currently.
Obviously, this should reduce a lot further as ethereum transitions over to the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which is expected to happen later this year.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
