Bitcoin estimated to use half a percent of the world’s electric energy by end of 2018

Bitcoin’s burgeoning electricity demands have attracted almost as much attention as the cryptocurrency’s fluctuating value. But estimating exactly how much electricity the Bitcoin network uses remains a challenge. In the first rigorously peer-reviewed article quantifying Bitcoin’s energy requirements, a Commentary appearing May 16 in the journal Joule, financial economist and blockchain specialist Alex de Vries uses a new methodology to pinpoint where Bitcoin’s electric energy consumption is headed and how soon it might get there.

Source: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-05/cp-bet051018.php