Denis Opudo
Bitcoin is still making its way into more urbanised countries as the best investment asset or the safest currency to pay for goods and services. Although the cryptocurrency is gaining popularity, it has been noted that it’s not only the value that is increasing but also the power consumption rate is on the rise. Research showed that the rate at which the cryptocurrency’s activities consume electricity is more than the consumption of twenty European nations.
Researchers from British energy price comparison platform Power Compare estimated that the total capacity of electricity required in mining Bitcoins was more than 159 individual countries. The mining cost now stands at $1.5 billion. Some of the countries on the list include Ireland, Serbia, Slovakia, Iceland, and many more. In Africa, only three states have higher electricity consumption than Bitcoin production. The countries are Algeria, Egypt and South Africa.
The current power consumption rate of Bitcoin stands at 29.05 TWh, and that’s equivalent to 0.13% of the world’s annual consumption. The logic shows that if in any case, the miners were to be placed in their own country, then the country will be ranked 60th on electric power consumption globally. That shows why Bitcoin mining played a crucial role in the horrific Segwit2X.
According to Power Compare, within the previous 30 days, there has been an increase in consumption of electricity by 30%. If in any case, the mining rate stays in progress, then the global mining consumption could be bigger than the United Kingdom’s total electricity supply by October 2017.
