The debate over Bitcoin’s energy consumption has reignited, with Ethereum founding member Anthony Donofrio claiming that Bitcoin uses “too much” energy.
According to Digiconomist figures, Bitcoin (BTC) currently uses 0.82% of the world’s energy, while Ethereum (ETH) uses 0.34%. Ethereum researcher Justin Drake posted the figures to his 56,000 followers that Donofrio retweetedstating:
If bitcoin is really using nearly 1% of the energy on earth that is way too much for a pet rock. https://t.co/CDL32jk5FF
— Texture, PhD (@iamtexture) June 9, 2022
If bitcoin actually uses nearly 1% of the Earth’s energy, that’s too much for a pet rock.
Ethereum Advocates Attempt to Fire Against Bitcoin While Simultaneously Promoting Ethereum’s Upcoming Transition to Proof-of-Stake Consensus ProtocolDrake added another Tweet moments later saying: “Ethereum post-merge: 0.000% of the world.”
However, the validity of the figures is in doubt.
Even Drake was forced to acknowledge alternative data sources in a subsequent tweet that estimated the power consumption figures at almost 60% less.
The data coming from Digiconomist, which markets itself as a platform that “exposes the unintended consequences of digital trends,” has drawn criticism from blockchain industry professionals in the past. The most notable is that of his colleague Josh Stark, an Ethereum developer, who called out the publication for frequently presenting worst-case scenarios when it comes to blockchain technology.
In November last year, Stark posted a thread on Twitter questioning the accuracy of Digiconimist’s research methodology. Stark noted that almost all figures regarding blockchain power consumption were at the “high end” of any theoretical results, especially when compared to more rigorous sources such as the University of Cambridge.
While Digiconomist states that Bitcoin currently consumes 204 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year, the Cambridge University Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index estimates that actual Bitcoin consumption is much closer to 125 TWh, a difference of 39 percent. %.
Although it is a known fact that Bitcoin’s proof-of-work consensus mechanism is an energy-consuming process, the discussion about how much energy the Bitcoin network actually uses is still a hot topic.
According to a Cointelegraph report, Setting a specific number on the actual energy consumption of Bitcoin can be quite difficult due to the variation in energy sources that power Bitcoin mining globally.
In January of this year, almost 60% of global mining operations were powered by renewable energy sources, and Bitcoin mining operators are rushing to use “stranded” natural gas resources that would normally be burned. Furthermore, a report published by CoinShares in January of this year found that Bitcoin mining could account for just 0.08% of the world’s total CO2 emissions in 2021.
Sam Tabar, director of security at Bit Digital, a publicly traded Bitcoin mining company, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin’s environmental impact is frequently exaggerated by critics:
“The environmental impact of Bitcoin mining is massively exaggerated by critics and mainstream financial authorities (IMF etc.) because they know they can divide a new counterculture movement using bogus environmental arguments. They are trying to turn us against each other. others. They illuminate the world with false ecological arguments, and I understand why: They don’t want to lose influence over the levers of power of a system that only works for the elite.”
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