In recent months, the digital currency market has faced a decline of more than 50 percent tanking millions of dollars of cryptocurrency dealers and investors. However, the recent crypto crash has majorly impacted the energy consumption of Bitcoin. According to Digiconomst, a platform that monitors Bitcoin’s energy consumption, the most widespread digital currency dropped by more than a third over the past couple of weeks.
Bitcoin Yearly Energy Consumption Has Decreased by 43 Percent
Bitcoin’s yearly energy consumption decreased from about 204 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year on June 11 to roughly 132 TWh per year on June 23, a drop of 43 percent. Bitcoins are created by “mining” coins, for which high-tech computers are used for long hours to do complex calculations. The more coins there are in the market, the longer it takes to “mine” a new one and in the process, hence more energy is consumed. In 2017, the Bitcoin network consumed 30 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity a year.
In addition to this, each bitcoin transaction roughly requires an average of 300kg of carbon dioxide – which is equivalent to the carbon footprint produced by 750,000 credit cards swiped. Meanwhile, in a new campaign launched, a group of environment activists wants Bitcoin to change its algorithm from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake to reduce climate consumption. The campaign called: “Change the Code, not the Climate” aims to make Bitcoin switch its algorithm, which will significantly reduce the competition to mine crypto coins.
Digital Currencies Are Working to Reduce CO2 Footprint Released by Mining Coins
Eventually, lowering Co2 footprint released by employing expensive devices for crypto mining. The group also emphasized that cryptocurrencies don’t need much energy to work. Many newer cryptocurrencies are low consumers of energy or carbon-neutral because they use proof-of-stake. Recently, digital currency, Ethereum also announced modifying its code, and even Dogecoin Foundation is working to switch to PoS, which could reduce energy consumption by 99 percent.
Read more: Bitcoin Price Falls Below $20,000; Lowest Since December 2020
