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I have no crypto holdings and feel good everytime it goes down because it validates my decision. That said does anyone have any real data on this or is this on

I have no crypto holdings and feel good everytime it goes down because it validates my decision. That said does anyone have any real data on this or is this one of those internet talking points that just sounds good? Like what percentage of power in these countries is being used by crypto farmers. If its 25% then yeah that seems like an out of control problem. If its 0.25% then it seems like a pointless scapegoat and we would need to start looking at how much of the countries power goes into manufacturing candy or maintaining golf courses or a long list of other things that only a portion of the country consumes.

onionisafruit 5y ago
There was a report on HN recently that said crypto’s 2021 worldwide energy usage was roughly the same as Argentina. I don’t know where that puts it as a percent of energy usage worldwide.
- user-the-name 5y ago
  About 0.5% of the entire electricity of the planet at the moment.
VHRanger 5y ago
BTC is about 0.5% of worldwide energy: https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index/comparisons https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index/comparisons So close to Sweden. Ethereum is much less, closer to Senegal in energy use.
- kipchak 5y ago
  A bit of pedantry: BTC is .56% of electricity use, and .28% of energy use according to this site, though I don't grasp where the disparity of coming from other than many miners getting power directly from the energy source versus through the public electrical grid.
  - purpleflame1257 5y ago
    Other way around. There's a lot of energy us on the planet that isn't electrical (good examples being gas cooking, petrol, and biomass in the developing world).
  - JAlexoid 5y ago
    When you burn gas/coal/oil to heat your home that is also energy.
henvic 5y ago
I despise proof-of-work exactly for this reason. https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index https://henvic.dev/posts/bitcoin/#energy-hog https://henvic.dev/posts/bitcoin/#energy-hog
shagie 5y ago
Specifically referring to Iran... https://old.iranintl.com/en/world/bitcoin-mining-iran-profitable-only-chinese-says-insider https://old.iranintl.com/en/world/bitcoin-mining-iran-profit... https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/cryptocurrency-mining-in-iran-easing-but-china-maintain-strict-stance/articleshow/85588848.cms https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/cryptocur... https://thediplomat.com/2021/01/bitcoin-mining-and-blackouts-add-to-anti-chinese-sentiments-in-iran/ https://thediplomat.com/2021/01/bitcoin-mining-and-blackouts... From that last one: > The photo of a power bill with an extremely huge price tag, issued for a customer named “Iran and China Investment Company,” has gone viral in recent days. The power bill, which apparently belongs to the Rafsanjan mining farm operated by the Chinese, indicates that the miners have used 58,615,905 kWh of electricity in one month, for which they have to pay over 270 billion rials (some $1.2 million). From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Iran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Iran > By the end of 2013, Iran had a total installed electricity generation capacity of 70,000 MW, If I did my math correctly ( https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=58%2C615%2C905+kWh+%2F+%2870%2C000+MW+*+1+year+%2F+12%29 https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=58%2C615%2C905+kWh+%2F... ) that one customer represents 0.1% of the max capacity of Iran's power grid. That leads us to: > In recent weeks, Iranian power plants have been forced to switch to burning low-grade fuel oil to generate power because a sharp rise in the country’s domestic consumption has led to natural gas shortages. This severely increased air pollution in Tehran and other megacities, increasing public anger toward the government. You could also work from https://www.elliptic.co/blog/how-iran-uses-bitcoin-mining-to-evade-sanctions https://www.elliptic.co/blog/how-iran-uses-bitcoin-mining-to... that has an estimate of 4.5% of all bitcoin mining is being done in Iran to go back to estimating the power consumption.
- JAlexoid 5y ago
  > 58,615,905 kWh of electricity in one month That's 80 kW of continuous power usage over a month.
  - caf 5y ago
    You're out by 3 orders of magnitude, it's equivalent to an ~80MW continuous load.

onionisafruit 5y ago

There was a report on HN recently that said crypto’s 2021 worldwide energy usage was roughly the same as Argentina. I don’t know where that puts it as a percent of energy usage worldwide.

user-the-name 5y ago
About 0.5% of the entire electricity of the planet at the moment.

VHRanger 5y ago

BTC is about 0.5% of worldwide energy: https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index/comparisons https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index/comparisons So close to Sweden. Ethereum is much less, closer to Senegal in energy use.

kipchak 5y ago
A bit of pedantry: BTC is .56% of electricity use, and .28% of energy use according to this site, though I don't grasp where the disparity of coming from other than many miners getting power directly from the energy source versus through the public electrical grid.
- purpleflame1257 5y ago
  Other way around. There's a lot of energy us on the planet that isn't electrical (good examples being gas cooking, petrol, and biomass in the developing world).
- JAlexoid 5y ago
  When you burn gas/coal/oil to heat your home that is also energy.

henvic 5y ago

I despise proof-of-work exactly for this reason. https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index https://henvic.dev/posts/bitcoin/#energy-hog https://henvic.dev/posts/bitcoin/#energy-hog

shagie 5y ago

Specifically referring to Iran... https://old.iranintl.com/en/world/bitcoin-mining-iran-profitable-only-chinese-says-insider https://old.iranintl.com/en/world/bitcoin-mining-iran-profit... https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/cryptocurrency-mining-in-iran-easing-but-china-maintain-strict-stance/articleshow/85588848.cms https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/cryptocur... https://thediplomat.com/2021/01/bitcoin-mining-and-blackouts-add-to-anti-chinese-sentiments-in-iran/ https://thediplomat.com/2021/01/bitcoin-mining-and-blackouts... From that last one: > The photo of a power bill with an extremely huge price tag, issued for a customer named “Iran and China Investment Company,” has gone viral in recent days. The power bill, which apparently belongs to the Rafsanjan mining farm operated by the Chinese, indicates that the miners have used 58,615,905 kWh of electricity in one month, for which they have to pay over 270 billion rials (some $1.2 million). From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Iran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Iran > By the end of 2013, Iran had a total installed electricity generation capacity of 70,000 MW, If I did my math correctly ( https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=58%2C615%2C905+kWh+%2F+%2870%2C000+MW+*+1+year+%2F+12%29 https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=58%2C615%2C905+kWh+%2F... ) that one customer represents 0.1% of the max capacity of Iran's power grid. That leads us to: > In recent weeks, Iranian power plants have been forced to switch to burning low-grade fuel oil to generate power because a sharp rise in the country’s domestic consumption has led to natural gas shortages. This severely increased air pollution in Tehran and other megacities, increasing public anger toward the government. You could also work from https://www.elliptic.co/blog/how-iran-uses-bitcoin-mining-to-evade-sanctions https://www.elliptic.co/blog/how-iran-uses-bitcoin-mining-to... that has an estimate of 4.5% of all bitcoin mining is being done in Iran to go back to estimating the power consumption.

JAlexoid 5y ago
> 58,615,905 kWh of electricity in one month That's 80 kW of continuous power usage over a month.
- caf 5y ago
  You're out by 3 orders of magnitude, it's equivalent to an ~80MW continuous load.