How much power does it take to make a bitcoin?
People all over the world are absolutely loving Bitcoin right now, but it is common knowledge that every seemingly perfect thing has its flaws and Bitcoins flaw is quite big. Bitcoin uses a huge amount of power during the mining process, as does every single other type of cryptocurrency which means that it is definitely not as environmentally friendly as you would hope. The vast community of expert Bitcoin miners have to use a substantially large amount to be able to create the Bitcoins we have come to know and love.
This huge electrically draining process has led to many experts believing that perhaps Bitcoin isn’t as environmentally friendly as people once thought it was. So, how much electricity does it actually take to create a single Bitcoin? In a written testimony from back in August of 2018, it was said that Bitcoin mining accounts for roughly 1% of the power usage in the worlds. They are created/mined by people globally who try to solve the same mathematic problem by the means of a computer and around every ten minutes, someone cracks the code and in return earns either Bitcoin or another form of currency.
With Bitcoin becoming more and more popular and introducing new things such as the Bitqt App, it is expected to soon see another skyrocket.
Bitcoin and the people
With Bitcoin rising in popularity and more people wanting to sink their teeth in, it means that many people are attempting to mine it to earn as much as possible. It is thought to be a good role to learn and apparently provides many people with a wealthy lifestyle if they do it correctly and enough. It is normal to think that with the rising popularity and more people wanting to get involved that more puzzles would be solved, however, unfortunately, that isn’t the case.
In fact, the Bitcoin software is specifically designed so that a puzzle can only be solved every ten minutes by people on the network. This way, they can make sure that there is only a reasonable number of puzzles solved and they also determine the difficulty of the puzzle based on how many people are currently trying to solve it, so it doesn’t necessarily become quicker depending on the number of people. Essentially, every single time new people enter the network, the puzzles, in turn, become harder to solve.
The cost of mining Bitcoin
The price that determines the cost of Bitcoin is essentially based on energy consumption as a whole which in turn is the environmental impact and how much it will become valuable in the current world. The problem with this is the fact that over time, all of the variables could change significantly which would explain why it can be so highly volatile at times. That is why it can become extremely hard to judge at times.
The power that people are spending on creating Bitcoins has become even more substantial over time and is expected to continue growing, this then poses a significant question. If Bitcoin will continue to skyrocket in popularity, how much more power will need to be consumed to warrant that and how will that inevitably affect the environment.