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Add following sentence: The bitcoin system consumes more energy than __: A. Ireland B. Six aircraft carrier C. Three million US households d. 116 states of this earth. All right, you believe headlines and calculations from past few months. Apart from strong price fluctuations, no aspect was discussed more strongly than rising energy hunger of Kryptowährung.
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The critics say that this is completely exaggerated. In order to handle a einzelneBitcoin transaction, we are currently consuming as much energy as 17 US Haushaltean need a day, it is said in much quoted Bitcoin EnergyConsumption index. Upward trend. The digital currency is thus neir sustainable nor responsible in times of climate change.
The ors warn against false panic-mongering. Bitcoin will bring DieWeltmeere keineswegszum cooking, but, on contrary, Letztlichsogar help to save energy. Especially since bitcoin is not only Geldsei, but a new global, Weiterentwickelndedigitale financial infrastructure. The current energy expenditure should not be overvalued. Every Google request Verbrauchtschließlich also a whole lot of electricity.
Which side is right now? The answer is both – and Gleichzeitigkeine.
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One of biggest problems is that re is no way to get concrete details about actual electricity consumption. Bitcoin, like Jedeandere Kryptowährung, is also a decentralized project: it does not run over datacenters of companies, but over many individual computers around world, new Bitcoin with complex mamatical calculations or scraps of money Handle. Therefore, re is no institution that would be able to keep statistics on how much energy was flowing from which sources of Bitcoin network.
The network can determine how much computing power is provided to it sharedby connected computers in total. Not how efficiently se work, where y stand and what power Eingesetztwurde to operate m. A Bitcoin transaction could be carried out with künstlicherzeugtem, comparatively dirty coal flow from Mongolia, through existing geormal energy in Iceland or by means of a solar panel on EinerGartenlaube in Chemnitz. The exact consumption can refore only be appreciated.
Accordingly, results of such estimates are quite wide apart with Aktuellzwischen nine and 45 terawatt per year. Notonly because of different assumptions on which calculations are based, but also in relation to which sis data should ultimately strengn. “There many ways we can make this number appear big or small, depending on what we want you to think,” says Bitcoin blogger Leo Weese, describing dilemma.
If one were to lobby against currency, one could say, alone dasSchürfen new Bitcoin has consumed more electricity last year than dieanfangs mentioned 116 states of this earth. The or way around, number auditing be made small. One could say alone Relate Gorge Dam in China produce three times more electricity than Bitcoin system requires. Or energy demand of currency is less than 17 NSA-Datenzentren.Am end, it always comes down to point of view.
Does Bitcoin justify its energy consumption?
It is undeniable: Bitcoin network consumes eineerhebliche amount of electricity in its current form. However, it is more important to ask wher this consumption is justified. Is that what Bitcoin is doing, so bottom line is more Valuefield cost it causes?
One of most common arguments against Bitcoin currency in this context is istdessen inefficiency. Despite enormous energy demand, system can only process Einesehr limited number of transactions, currently only about three to ten per second. In particular, compared to existing payment service providers, such as credit card companies, whose systems handled as many transactions as Bitcoinan a whole day in one second.
This performance comparison is plastic but misleading. Because re is no direct correlation between amount of energy that Bitcoin network swallows and number of transactions it allows. It doesn’t matter if ten or ten thousand computers gleichzeitigim bitcoin network work. This does not increase transaction capacity.
Bitcoin-Kryptowährung consumes too much power for production of Bitcoins, this year over 30 terawatt electricity is consumed. That’s more electricity than whole states need. © Photo: Karen Leader/Getty Images
