{"id":123699,"date":"2021-02-10T16:30:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T21:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=123699"},"modified":"2021-02-10T16:57:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T21:57:39","slug":"as-prices-surge-bitcoin-now-reportedly-consumes-more-electricity-than-argentina-netherlands-and-uae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/as-prices-surge-bitcoin-now-reportedly-consumes-more-electricity-than-argentina-netherlands-and-uae\/","title":{"rendered":"As Prices Surge, Bitcoin Now Reportedly Consumes More Electricity Than Argentina, Netherlands, And UAE"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fas-prices-surge-bitcoin-now-reportedly-consumes-more-electricity-than-argentina-netherlands-and-uae%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=123699&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1196863074-1200x800-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>According to researchers at Cambridge University, in terms of annual energy consumption, Bitcoin now consumes more power than Argentina, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates, at 121.36 TWh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, a<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/cbeci.org\/\"><span>tool<\/span><\/a> <span>developed by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance under the University of Cambridge\u2019s <em>Judge Business School<\/em>, provides a real-time update on Bitcoin\u2019s network power. Their annualized chart shows a sudden rise from an estimated annual consumption of 56.48 TWh in late October to almost double that at 112.23 TWH in mid January.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This surge in electricity consumption aligns with the meteoric rise of Bitcoin\u2019s price, which has increased from $13,748 on November 1 to $46,517.40 on February 9. While much focus has been given to its price, experts are reportedly becoming increasingly<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/02\/05\/bitcoin-btc-surge-renews-worries-about-its-massive-carbon-footprint.html\"><span>alarmed<\/span><\/a> <span>by the \u201csheer level of energy required by so-called miners, which release new coins into circulation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to Digiconomist\u2019s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, a<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/digiconomist.net\/bitcoin-energy-consumption\"><span>tool<\/span><\/a> <span>created by data scientist Alex de Vries, Bitcoin now has a \u201ccarbon footprint comparable to that of New Zealand,\u201d producing an estimated 36.95 megatons of C02 per year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Michel Rauchs, a Cambridge researcher, told CNBC that Bitcoin\u2019s energy needs are \u201cenormously large,\u201d and that Bitcoin accounts \u201cfor around 0.5% of total global electricity consumption.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The reason for Bitcoin\u2019s growing consumption of energy is its reliance on a process called \u201cmining,\u201d where \u201cpurpose-built computers\u201d compete to solve complex hashing algorithms on which the cryptocurrency\u2019s blockchain \u2014 \u201ca digital ledger of all bitcoin transactions\u201d \u2014 relies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After Tesla, Inc. announced that they had purchased approximately $1.5 billion Bitcoin and were planning to accept it as payment in the future, Bitcoin\u2019s value hit a record high of $48,000 this week, further<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-56012952\"><span>fueling<\/span><\/a> <span>the \u201cincentive to Bitcoin miners to run more and more machines.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Critics have pointed out that Tesla\u2019s investment \u201cclashes with the electric car firm\u2019s previous environmental stance\u201d when considering Bitcoin\u2019s energy implications.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cElon Musk has thrown away a lot of Tesla\u2019s good work promoting energy transition,\u201d David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain said, reported by the BBC. \u201cThis is very bad\u2026 I don\u2019t know how he can walk this back effectively. Tesla got $1.5 billion in environmental subsidies in 2020, funded by the taxpayer. It turned around and spent $1.5 billion on Bitcoin, which is mostly mined with electricity from coal. Their subsidy needs to be examined.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Gerard then proceeded to suggest that a \u201ccarbon tax on cryptocurrencies could be introduced to balance out some of the negative consumption.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span>member<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to researchers at Cambridge University, in terms of annual energy consumption, Bitcoin now consumes more power than Argentina, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates, at 121.36 TWh. The &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1893135,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4254,6271,3826,4590,4292,4395],"class_list":["post-123699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bitcoin","tag-consumes","tag-more","tag-prices","tag-reportedly","tag-surge"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}