Environmental Concerns
Note: All data in this section updated as of March 30th, 2022
Proof-of-work consensus mining uses a significant amount of energy. It has been estimated that each transaction uses enough electricity to power the average home for six weeks. When you add all the transactions together, the cost is staggering – Bitcoin alone consumes roughly X% of the world’s energy. That’s 7x the amount Google uses and more than Norway!
Bitcoin consumes more energy than many countries
Fortunately, these statistics may not be as alarming as they seem at first glance. First of all, energy expenditure does not necessarily equate to environmental impact. In fact, because miners are incentivized to find the cheapest source of energy possible, many rely on alternative sources such as wind or solar Some estimates believe that 40% to 75% of the energy to power proof-of-work mining may come from renewable sources.
Second, many newer cryptocurrencies are adopting a proof-of-stake model (and Ethereum is transitioning to one), which uses almost no energy.
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