In 12 Months, Energy Usage Of Bitcoin Surges 41%, Regulatory Risks To Rise

The energy consumption for Bitcoin (BTC) has continued rising and the growth rate has been significantly higher in the running year.

YoY Increase in Energy Consumption

According to data, the year-over-year (YoY) energy consumption for mining Bitcoin has increased significantly.

Although there has been a lot of stress to introducing energy-efficient means for Bitcoin mining, still, energy consumption has increased.

Governments from around the world have been asking to introduce sustainable and diverse energy sources. Still, the rise in Bitcoin energy consumption has raised many concerns.

For the running year, a 41% increase has been recorded in the energy consumption for mining Bitcoin.

Due to the constant rise in energy consumption, regulatory concerns are rising. As a result, the regulators may have to intervene and clamp down on cryptocurrency mining operations.

Data Comes from BMC

The Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) has recently shared its data for the third quarter of 2022, revealing the mining consumption of Bitcoin among the world’s large BTC mining companies.

The report shows that the energy consumption from the mining operations of Bitcoin is 0.16% of the total energy production in the entire world.

The energy consumption from Bitcoin mining is a bit less than the consumption from computer games. The report has been shared by the BMC and the percentage it consumes is below the consequential level.

The report has also shown that the carbon emissions from Bitcoin mining projects are 0.10% of the global carbon emissions. Once again, it is a level that is easily negligible.

Increase in Hashrate

The report shows that the hash rate of the Bitcoin network has surged by 8.34% in the third quarter of 2022. It shows that a 73% year-over-year increase has been recorded so far.

Even though the price pressure of Bitcoin has been moving in a downward direction and fewer blocks are being produced, energy consumption has been rising significantly.

Claim by Glassnode

Glassnode, a blockchain-based data analytics firm has revealed that the rise in the hash rate is because of the mining hardware that is more efficient. Then miners are constantly upgrading their mining equipment and other hardware to increase their hash power.

It is mainly the mining centers that are contributing to a higher hash rate, which is consuming high energy.

The data by Glassnode claims that the year-over-year efficiency of Bitcoin mining has surged by 23%. In the past eight years, the mining efficiency for Bitcoin has increased by 5,814%.

According to market observers, if the mining power keeps rising for Bitcoin, then the regulators would have no choice but to look into the matter in detail. They may deal with the matter aggressively and try to bring an end to the constantly rising energy consumption.