From CNBC, with a headline of: No, bitcoin isn’t likely to consume all the world’s electricity in 2020:
The computer process that generates each coin is said to be on pace to require more electricity than the United States consumes in a year. This bitcoin “mining” allegedly consumes more power than most countries use each year, and its electricity usage is roughly equivalent to Bulgaria’s consumption.
But here’s another thing you might want to know: All of that analysis is based on a single estimate of bitcoin’s power consumption that is highly questionable, according to some long-time energy and IT researchers. Despite their skepticism, this power-consumption estimate from the website Digiconomist has quickly been accepted as gospel by many journalists, research analysts and even billionaire investors.
I liked Techmeme’s headline summary the best: Experts question dire current and future Bitcoin energy use projections, most of which are based on a single source, Digiconomist, whose methodology is suspect
