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Bitcoin farm in Florence: enormous energy consumption
Photo: Alessandro Bianchi / REUTERS
After Tesla's billion dollar purchase of Bitcoin, the course of the digital currency rushed from record to record: On Tuesday morning, Bitcoin cracked the $ 48,000 mark for the first time.
The fact that the electric car manufacturer Tesla is helping Bitcoin to become more popular is somewhat ironic.
Because the ecological footprint of Bitcoin is tough: researchers at Cambridge University estimate the annual energy requirement of the digital currency at around 120 terawatt hours.
"This means that Bitcoin needs about as much electricity as Argentina or Norway," says Ulrich Gallersdörfer.
The software engineer is researching blockchain systems at the Technical University of Munich and, together with other scientists, has examined the energy requirements of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
New bitcoins are created by solving complicated arithmetic problems.
Rising prices attract even more Bitcoin miners, which leads to more electricity consumption.
This does not only apply to Bitcoin: Gallersdörfer estimates that the so-called Altcoins such as Ethereum or Litecoin together consume almost half as much electricity as Bitcoin.
Overall, the energy consumption of the cryptocurrencies should be between 120 and 150 terawatt hours.
Because many Bitcoin farms are operated in Asia, the lion's share of the electricity required for this is likely to come from fossil fuels.
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