Benzinga - Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has been long criticized for its high energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuels to power its network. However, a recent study has revealed a surprising fact — "hydro" has become the major power source for Bitcoin mining.
What Happened: According to Daniel Batten, an ESG analyst, fossil fuel sources have been decreasing at a combined rate of 6.2% per year since January 2020.
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The report is upThe report shows a complete picture of the Bitcoin network, and it turns out that hydro is the major source of energy, contributing to 23% of all Bitcoin mining.Bitcoin's major power source is now HYDRO
(23% of all power)
Fossil fuel sources have been decreasing at a combined 6.2% per year since Jan 2020
Methodology and full report:https://t.co/IqAjwEPEtf pic.twitter.com/B1s6hTP89r
— Daniel Batten (@DSBatten) March 30, 2023
Who Are Responsible? The report states that more than half of all sustainable off-grid mining is now hydro-powered. Sustainable mining companies such as OceanFalls, Blockfusion, Hut8, Iris, Sato, Terawulf, Statar/Lake Parime, Gridshare and HPG use hydro as the primary power source or as the majority of their power source.
While hydro makes up 15.8% of on-grid power, it represents 23% of all Bitcoin mining power. Following hydro, wind power is the second major sustainable energy source for Bitcoin mining — now at close to 14%. Marathon, a Bitcoin mining company with 14 EH of hash rate, contributes to this trend.
The analyst said that compared to electric vehicles, Bitcoin mining has a lower use of coal as an energy source. While globally, due to the proportionate distribution of EVs, coal represents 36.7% of its energy source, gas being 23.5%, Bitcoin mining makes significant use of gas as well (21.14%) and significantly less use of coal as an energy source (22.92%).
“If sustainable energy growth continues to trend upwards, then this is likely to cause the relative percentages of coal, gas and other fossil fuel sources to decline,” the report added.
Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $28,145, down 1.37% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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