The Great Bitcoin Electricity Debate

The Great Bitcoin Electricity Debate

Share to Linkedin There is a great debate underway about the electricity required to process Bitcoin transactions. The debate is significant, the stakes are high, the views are diverse, and there are smart people on both sides. Bitcoin generates a lot of emotion, thereby producing too much heat and not enough light. In this post, I explain the importance of identifying the key issues in the debate, and of understanding the nature and extent of disagreements about how much electrical energy Bitcoin consumes. Consider the background against the debate is taking place. Because of its unstable price, Bitcoin cannot serve as a global mainstream medium of exchange. The instability is apparent. On January 1, 2021, Bitcoin's dollar price was just over $29, 000. Its price rose above $63, 000 in mid-April, and then fell below $35, 000, where it has traded recently. Now the financial media is asking whether we are about to experience another "cyber winter" as the prices of cryptocurrencies continue their dramatic declines. As bitcoins skyrocket to more than $12 000 for one BTC, many central banks as ECB or US Federal ... [+] Reserve warn of risks of a bubble. Britain and the ECB want to