Arcane Research has estimated the energy consumption dynamics of bitcoin mining.
According to the estimates of Arcane Research, bitcoin mining is able to consume a noticeable amount of energy only by 2040, and that’s assuming that the price of the cryptocurrency number one will be a few million dollars.
Arcane Research analyst Geran Mellerud notedthat in addition to the price of bitcoin, the amount of energy consumed when mining bitcoin is influenced by the level of electricity rates and the amount of transaction fees. It is also worth noting that an important factor is the performance of the mining machines, which is constantly increasing.
Arcane Research estimates that if the price of bitcoin reaches $2 million in 17 years, bitcoin mining will consume 894 terawatt hours annually, ten times more than it currently does. Despite this possible jump in consumption, this would be only 0.36% of total energy consumption in 2040, compared to the current share of 0.05%. At a bitcoin price of $500,000, we would be talking about 223 terawatt hours, and at a cost of $100,000 – only 45 terawatt hours.
According to the organization, miners are currently paying about 50% of all costs for electricity.
Speaking about the price dynamics of bitcoin, Arcane Research stressed that the halvings in the cryptocurrency’s number one blockchain play a significant role in increasing the price of this digital asset. It is also not ruled out that further unlocking bitcoin’s financial potential will lead to a significant increase in transaction fees, which are currently successfully competing with that of the largest altcoin by capitalization, Ethereum.