The annual carbon footprint of Bitcoin transactions is now equivalent to New Zealand's.
It costs more than $25 million a day in electricity to process Bitcoin transactions, according to a new report.
According to Trading Platforms, electricity consumption has increased by a staggering 10,201% between October 2015 and January 2021 — with the typical energy footprint of a transaction for 1 BTC currently standing at $76.74.
The surprising statistics don’t end here. Over the course of a year, Bitcoin consumes 37% of the energy used by the whole of the UK, 9.1% of the electricity used by India, 2.89% of what’s used by the US, and 1.72% of what’s used by China.
Although Trading Platforms explained that many of the regions where BTC mining is most popular are expected to rely on wind and solar energy soon, this could take time, adding:
“Bitcoin’s electricity has resulted in apocalyptic and sensational views, especially from critics of the digital currency. However, the outlook for Bitcoin energy use remains largely uncertain. The future outlook will be influenced by efficiency improvements in hardware, Bitcoin price trends, and Bitcoin mining regulations.”
The report also raised questions about how sustainable Bitcoin is in the long run, not least because of how this cryptocurrency has a carbon footprint that’s comparable to the whole of New Zealand. Renewable energy sources could be key to bringing this figure down.
Figures from Digiconomist also show that the electronic waste generated by Bitcoin is comparable to the whole of Luxembourg — and a single BTC transaction has a carbon footprint that’s equivalent to a whopping 656,944 Visa transactions… or 49,000 hours watching YouTube. One crypto payment also uses the same amount of power that an average American family would use in three weeks.
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