How sustainable is BTC today?

The Bitcoin mining network has gradually transitioned to green energy. Here is what percentage of the network is sustainable today.

52.6% of the Bitcoin mining network now uses sustainable energy

One of the most talked about controversies surrounding cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has been their potential negative impact on the environment. BTC uses a “proof-of-work” (PoW) consensus system to validate transactions on the blockchain. This means that chain validators called miners compete against each other using massive amounts of computing power to be the first to solve a mathematical puzzle and set transfers in the next block.

Miners require specialized computing devices for this purpose which can be power intensive. As the Bitcoin network has only grown larger over the years, the chain’s energy consumption has only increased.

For this reason, a study on how the BTC network is progressing in shifting towards green energy sources is important. An analyst on Twitter, Daniel Battenhas teamed up with analyst Willy Woo to create charts that show relevant data on Bitcoin’s sustainability.

Here is the first of the graphs, showing how the percentage of the network using sustainable energy has changed in recent years:

Looks like the metric has sharply grown recently | Source: Daniel Batten on Twitter

As shown in the chart above, the Bitcoin network has made some great strides in shifting towards greener over the past few years. Sustainable energy sources now power more than 50% of the network.

Interestingly, the total emissions from the grid have been going down for quite some time now, even though the miners’ power consumption has only gone up.

Total emissions of the BTC mining network | Source: Daniel Batten on Twitter

From the diagram, it is clear that emissions were on the rise during the first half of 2021, but after the mining ban in China, emissions fell sharply. As a result of this ban, a large-scale migration of miners to other countries occurred.

Since then, emissions have remained low, despite the fact that the network is still growing. It seems likely that these miners switched to sustainable energy sources wherever they set up their new facilities.

Bitcoin mining emissions per dollar have also decreased in recent years, as the chart below shows.

BTC emissions per market cap have been flat for quite a while now | Source: Daniel Batten on Twitter

“This chart shows that, unlike the current global financial system where GDP growth is tied to rising emissions, Bitcoin’s market value can grow while emissions do not,” notes the analyst.

And finally, an important sign of the progress made by the mining network can be seen in the fact that it is also becoming emissions efficient, meaning that it produces fewer emissions in relation to its total energy consumption.

The mining emission intensity of the Bitcoin network | Source: Daniel Batten on Twitter

BTC price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $22,300, down 5% in the past week.

BTC consolidates sideways | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Featured image from Brian Wangenheim at Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, charts.woobull.com