Despite much turbulence in 2022, the Bitcoin mining industry’s hashing technology has grown steadily more efficiently throughout the year, according to a new survey from the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC).
Industry has also become slightly greener, maintaining a sustainable energy mix of over 58%.
Bitcoin is green, says BMC
In a Press release On Thursday, the BMC confirmed that its members’ hashrate has grown from 95 exahashes since its inception in Q1 2022 to 119 exahashes in Q4 2022. One exahash equals 1 quintillion hashes – answers to a complex mathematical problem produced by miners in a race to create the next block of Bitcoin.
BMC accounts for 48.4% of Bitcoin’s global hash rate, which means its collective increase in hash rate has implications for the entire network. A higher hashrate forces Bitcoin’s difficulty to adjust higher, increasing network security and settlement assurance.
Powering these computers costs a lot of electricity, but the BMC claims that its electricity sources are mostly clean and its use is very efficient.
“The results of this survey show that BMC members and survey participants are currently using electricity with a sustainable energy mix of 63.8%,” reads the group’s statement. “Based on this data, the sustainable power mix of the global bitcoin mining industry improved slightly to 58.9% and remains one of the most sustainable industries in the world.”
Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mechanism is often ridiculed for tricking network users into consuming large amounts of electricity. According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, the network currently consumes around 102.91 TWh per year, which is more than all of Finland.
Mining proponents, however, argue that this mixture is largely renewable – and should become cleaner over time as miners seek out the world’s cheapest sources of energy. Moreover, reduction programs can effectively prevent the mining industry from draining energy from those who need it most during peak periods.
“In Q4 2022, we also saw a significant increase in curtailments, with 14 BMC members reporting 2.5 GW of bitcoin mining operations participating in curtailment programs and 1,280 GWh of power returned to local grids during downtimes. peak periods,” said Ben Gagnon. , Mining Director of Bitfarms.
Year-over-year, the technology efficiency of the mining network also increased by 16%, “from 19.3 PE per gigawatt (GW) in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 22.4 PE per GW in the fourth quarter of 2022. “.
Is proof of stake better?
To virtually eliminate Bitcoin’s energy consumption, some figures have spoken in favor of its transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. These people include the chairman of the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, Rostin Benham, and the co-founder of Ripple. Chris Larsen.
Proof of stake allows users to stake their cryptocurrency holdings to provide financial security to the network rather than energy. Ethereum adopted this technology last September, reducing its total energy consumption by 99.9%.
Bitcoiners, however, are widely opposed to this move. The Bitcoin Mining Council and other leading figures in the community have published a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency in May, arguing that proof-of-stake is not suited to “governing a global, apolitical monetary system.”
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