Bitcoin Network Will Consume as Much Energy as Pakistan in 2021, Says Bloomberg

The Bitcoin network was expected to consume nearly 67TWh of electricity in 2020, and its total consumption has already exceeded this in 2021.

Source: Bloomberg.

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By the end of the year, the Bitcoin network is set to have used 91TWh of energy, the same as Pakistan.

As the price of Bitcoin increases, more Bitcoin miners with less-energy efficient machines join the network, pushing up energy use. That implies it is critical to improve the efficiency of crypto-mining and move to low-carbon energy sources for electricity.

Environmentalists have cautioned that carbon emissions from power-intensive bitcoin mining could hurt the sustainability efforts.

In May, a major proponent of cryptocurrencies, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that the company had suspended the use of bitcoin to purchase its vehicles because of climate concerns.

Bitcoin mining is a process for creating a new coin that usually involves the use of computers to solve complex mathematical algorithms. The process ends up using huge amounts of electricity as powerful systems are used by miners to forge blocks and verify transactions.