Bitcoin Mining Power Consumption Explained: Everything is Great!
In recent days there has been widespread hysteria over bitcoin mining power consumption explained with comparisons to bitcoin mining electricity use exceeds that of Ireland or Denmark or Timbuktu or 159 countries combined. Dozens of these articles are all over the Internet, this story is still alive and well a week later and all of them fail to recognize one simple fact; bitcoin mining is getting more energy efficient every year.
Put another way, bitcoin mining power consumption explained through current power consumption is like analyzing the gasoline consumption of a Ford Model T and postulating that everybody must stop driving cars today. That’s because bitcoin miners are putting out higher levels of performance at lower levels of power consumption year over year. We won’t need to upgrade our electricity grids and we won’t need to worry about the bitcoin mining carbon footprint, we only need to let bitcoin miners gain access to increasingly efficient equipment. This is already happening and will continue to happen because the free market itself will handle all competitive concerns as bitcoin miners want to mine Bitcoin faster at lower costs.
Every bitcoin miner – me included – knows that the only operating expense that matters is electricity. Bitcoin miner manufacturers know this and churn out increasingly efficient bitcoin miners year after year. Let’s take a walk down memory lane….
Canaan’s Avalon Miner 721 churned out 6 TH/s with approximately 1000 watts power consumption. Their current model cranks out 7.1 TH/s at 1100 watts. In other words, the unit consumes 10% more electricity but delivers output that’s 15% higher. That’s good math.
Similarly compare Bitmain’s Antminer S7 to their current flagship model the S9 and you will quickly realize the S9 delivers roughly 300% more output with virtually no increase in power consumption. Next generation bitcoin miners due out in 2018 will be even more efficient as the chipsets get more dense in delivering more processing power with lower electricity requirements. One example of this is the DragonMint 16T among others we wrote about.
Now let’s talk about the benefits of bitcoin mining: It actually saves energy in other sectors of the world economy.
The Avalon miners running in my own home generate enough heat as to make it unnecessary for me to heat my home with fossil fuels. I’m serious. I wouldn’t be surprised to get a call from my local gas company sometime this month asking me why I’m not turning my heat on despite overnight temperatures of about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. My consumption of natural gas to heat my home will be ZERO all winter long. What’s the power conservation value of every bitcoin miner NOT needing to heat their home through oil or gas or electricity OTHER than the electricity consumption of bitcoin miners?
Bitcoin mining power consumption explained another way — bitcoin miners who do this full time typically don’t commute. They don’t burn gasoline to get to “the office”, they don’t give off emissions and they reduce congestion on the world’s roadways. There. Bitcoin mining power consumption explained in a nutshell; Bitcoin miners are saving the world across every layer of the global economy WHILE saving the environment. How’s that for media spin?
