Running Bitcoin uses a small city’s worth of electricity. Intel and others want to make a more sustainable blockchain
Bitcoin “miners” are electromagnetic alchemists, effectively turning megawatt-hours of electricity into the world’s fastest-growing currency. Their intensive computational activity cryptographically secures the virtual currency, approves transactions, and, in the process, creates new bitcoins for the miners, as payment.
And it does another thing, too: It uses an absolutely stunning amount of power. The ever-expanding racks of processors used by miners already consume as much electricity as a small city. It’s a problem that experts say is bad and getting worse.
More: The Ridiculous Amount of Energy It Takes to Run Bitcoin – IEEE Spectrum
