Despite the decrease in energy consumption of BTC miners shortly after the halving, when inefficient AISC miners began to disconnect from the network, this figure has now started to rise again.
After bitcoin halving in May, when the reward for mining a block for miners fell from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, many unprofitable and inefficient ASIC miners left the network. Then it was reported that the energy consumption of Bitcoin miners decreased by 24%, but still remains high.
Now, according to Digiconomist and the Cambridge Bitcoin Miner Electricity Consumption Index, this figure, albeit gradually, is starting to rise again. Digiconomist data shows that mining BTC now on average requires about 61.2 TW / hr per year, and this is the highest figure since May 11.
In June, the energy consumption of miners shortly reached 60 TW / h, fell for a short time, but then increased again. According to Digiconomist, the minimum energy consumption figure is 51.2 TWh – the highest it was last on March 14, long before the halving.
According to Digiconomist estimates, the total estimated energy consumption of Bitcoin miners is now greater than that of the whole of Algeria, and is approaching Kuwait’s energy consumption figures.
At the same time, bitcoin miners leave a carbon footprint, along with the same amount of electronic waste as in Luxembourg. A single Bitcoin transaction leaves a carbon footprint equivalent to 626,300 Visa transactions or 41,757 hours of YouTube video viewing.
Cambridge’s estimates differ from those above, but still indicate a trend towards an increase in the amount of energy spent around the world in mining BTC. The site’s data shows an average peak in energy consumption of 59.1 TWh last Tuesday, and has hovered around 58 TWh since then. This is the highest recorded on the site since May 21st.
Despite the fact that the energy consumption of Bitcoin miners is still far from the peak of 77.7 TW / h per year recorded by Digiconomist in early May before the halving, this trend indicates that energy consumption for BTC mining is gradually and steadily increasing.
