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- Bitcoin’s use of sustainable energy has been growing consistently every passing quarter.
- Michael Saylor said that Bitcoin detractors have been giving inaccurate predictions of BTC’s energy use.
As the energy debates over the power consumed by the Bitcoin mining activities continue, the Bitcoin Mining Council has come up with a fresh report. Last year, some of the top industry players came joined hands to create the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) whose job is to maintain transparency in Bitcoin’s energy use.
Last year, BMC members pledged to shift a large part of Bitcoin mining activities to green energy. It seems that they have been seeing good success in their efforts. As per the Q2 2022 report published by the Bitcoin Mining Council, nearly 60 percent of the energy to power Bitcoin mining rigs comes from sustainable sources. As per the data provided, this is a 6 percent jump from Q2 2021 and a 2 percent jump from Q1 2022.
This is also the fifth consecutive quarter where the use of sustainable power remains above 50 percent. The Bitcoin Mining Council concluded that Bitcoin mining is “one of the most sustainable industries globally”.
The BMC also found that along with the surge of the sustainable energy mix, there’s also an improvement in the mining efficiency. For the second quarter of 2022, the Bitcoin mining hashrate surged 137 percent. This means that the Bitcoin blockchain network was 137 percent more secure YoY. Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor, who’s also a board member at the Council said:
In the second quarter of 2022, the hashrate and related security of the Bitcoin Network improved by 137% year-on-year while energy usage only increased 63%. We observed a 46% year-on-year increase in efficiency due to advances in semiconductor technology, the rapid expansion of North American mining, the China Exodus, and the worldwide adoption of sustainable energy and modern bitcoin mining techniques.
Bitcoin’s energy use debate
There’s been a lot of debate about Bitcoin’s energy consumption through mining activities. In fact, the ECB literally compared Bitcoin’s PoW network to fossil fuels while criticizing its energy use.
However, data shows that Bitcoin mining activities consume only 0.15 percent of the global energy supply. Furthermore, the Bitcoin mining Council found that BTC mining accounted for just 0.09 percent of the 34.8 billion metric tons (BMt) of carbon emissions.
Saylor lashed out at the Bitcoin detractors for their inaccurate predictions on Bitcoin’s energy use. He noted: “People have been predicting that Bitcoin was going to use up all the energy in the world for quite a while. That’s not happening and it’s not going to happen because of the efficiency dynamics”.
Bitcoin developer Sjors Provoost recently offered an interesting take on Bitcoin’s energy use going ahead. He also shared info on the energy use if the BTC price touched $20 million.
