IT TOOK GRIST' JUST TWO WEEKS TO PROGRESS
FROM WARNING OF " DOOMSDAY GLACIERS"
TO EXPLAINING THAT
BITCOIN MEANS THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE:
FROM WARNING OF " DOOMSDAY GLACIERS"
TO EXPLAINING THAT
BITCOIN MEANS THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE:
INCOMPARABLY INNUMERATE DOOMSDAY COLUMNIST ERIC HOLTHAUS REPORTS:
" Today, each bitcoin transaction requires the same amount of energy used to power nine homes in the U.S. for one day. And miners are constantly installing more and faster computers. Already, the aggregate computing power of the bitcoin network isnearly 100,000 times larger than the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers combined.
The total energy use of this web of hardware is huge — an estimated 31 terawatt-hours per year. More than 150 individual countries in the world consume less energy annually. And that power-hungry network is currently increasing its energy use every day by about 450 gigawatt-hours, roughly the same amount of electricity the entire country of Haiti uses in a year.
That sort of electricity use is pulling energy from grids all over the world, where it could be charging electric vehicles and powering homes, to bitcoin-mining farms. In Venezuela, where rampant hyperinflation and subsidized electricity has led to a boom in bitcoin mining, rogue operations are now occasionally causing blackoutsacross the country. The world’s largest bitcoin mines are in China, where they siphon energy from huge hydroelectric dams, some of the cheapest sources of carbon-free energy in the world. One enterprising Tesla owner even attempted to rig up a mining operation in his car, to make use of free electricity at a public charging station.
In just a few months from now, at bitcoin’s current growth rate, the electricity demanded by the cryptocurrency network will start to outstrip what’s available, requiring new energy-generating plants. And with the climate conscious racing to replace fossil fuel-base plants with renewable energy sources, new stress on the grid means more facilities using dirty technologies. By July 2019, the bitcoin network will require more electricity than the entire United States currently uses. By February 2020, it will use as much electricity as the entire world does today."
REALLY ? RUNNING THE ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING NUMBERS REVEALS
BITCOIN MINING ENERGY DEMAND IS <100 MEGAWATTS GLOBALLY :
A FEW % OF THE OUTPUT OF ONE MAJOR POWER STATION
