Bitcoin mining now consumes 0.16% of global energy production
In light of an ongoing debate about the impact of Bitcoin (BTC) mining on the environment, the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) has presented new facts that claim how negligible this impact is.
In fact, one of the conclusions of BMC’s ‘Global Bitcoin Mining Data Review’ for Q3 2022 is that global BTC mining uses only 0.16% of the world’s energy production, as presented in a video streamed on October 18.
According to BMC founder and former MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor:
“Bitcoin uses an insignificant amount of global energy. The figure this quarter is 16 basis points (bps) of the world’s energy or 0.16%.”
Specifically, the total amount of energy used worldwide is 165,317 TWh, while BTC mining only uses 266 TWh of that energy. In Saylor’s words, one-third of total global energy use is actually wasted energy that cannot be harnessed, with Bitcoin accounting for “only a tiny fraction” of this.
Comparing this energy use to other industries, the report also concluded that Bitcoin mining uses less energy than residential and commercial buildings, construction, aviation, home appliances in the United States, as well as gold mining.
That said, some of the other cryptocurrency projects have claimed to use a fraction of Bitcoin’s energy consumption themselves, including Chia (XCH) whose “green paper” says it uses only 0.16% of Bitcoin’s annual energy consumption.
A leader in sustainability?
Furthermore, the report compares the sustainable power mix of the global Bitcoin mining industry to that of major countries in the world, with BMC members and BTC mining all “dramatically higher in the sustainable power mix than Germany or the EU.”
Saylor explained that for six consecutive quarters, Bitcoin has been the industry leader in sustainability, with a sustainable energy mix of 59.4%. As he emphasized:
“It’s hard to find any other industry that drives such a high proportion of sustainable energy as Bitcoin.”
CO2 production is still at the low end
Finally, the study also found that global Bitcoin mining only accounts for 0.1% of world CO2 production. As Saylor commented:
“It also generates negligible carbon emissions – 10 bps. So 99.9% of the carbon in the world that we can trace comes from something other than Bitcoin. (…) In fact, every industry generates more CO2.”
Interestingly, this is slightly higher than CoinShares’ report from January that put the figure at 0.08%, as Finbold reported at the time.
Watch the full video of the briefing below:
