Altcoins Account for One Third of Total Crypto Mining Power Usage

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich are encouraging regulators to look beyond Bitcoin when it comes to considering the environmental impact of crypto mining.

According to an Aug. 4 issue of scientific journal Joule, researchers Ulrich Gallersdörfer, Lena Klaaßen, and Christian Stoll determined that Bitcoin mining accounted for only 66% of the total power usage of the 20 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

The study determined the power consumption of altcoins by analyzing their hash rates and mining equipment.

Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney noted as early as 2009 that mining had the potential to create an environmental nightmare due to its energy requirements, and this was prior to the creation of altcoins.

According to the Digiconomist, the collective power consumption of the Bitcoin mining network as of today - roughly 63.5 terawatt-hours - eclipses the power consumption of several developed countries, including Switzerland.

Most of the power for Bitcoin mining already comes from renewable energy sources.

According to a Dec. 2019 report from research firm CoinShares, roughly 73% of BTC mining is powered by renewable energy.

One solution proposed to address the energy consumption of mining crypto is converting excess gas produced while mining oil into electricity.

By setting up mining operations in containers at the fields, there is no need to set up pipelines or waste excess gas.

The operations simply turn the surplus gas or oil into electricity to power the mining rigs.