• Bitcoin hash rate up significantly according to report
• Pleasing sustainability record
• University of New Mexico study conflicts with BMC survey
Bitcoin Mining Council champions bitcoin mining
The Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) is made up of numerous Bitcoin miners who want to advance the blockchain of the crypto bedrock. “We promote transparency, share best practices, and educate the public about the benefits of bitcoin and bitcoin mining,” the company’s project page says. Founding members of the organization include software developer MicroStrategy, crypto miner Marathon Digital Holdings and blockchain company Galaxy. According to its own information, 51 mining companies are included in the merger, representing 45.4 percent of the industry.
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Bitcoin hashrate leaves Ethereum & Co. far behind
In October 2022, the Mining Council published a report on the third quarter of the current year. According to the report, Bitcoin’s hash rate, which measures the network’s total computing power, rose 73 percent to 267,390,203 tera hashes per second (TH/s) in the third quarter of 2022. One tera hash equals one trillion hashes. For comparison, according to the report, Ethereum Classic, the original network of the second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum, only clocks in at 141 TH/s. The ratio between Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic corresponds to the size ratio between the Japanese volcano Fuji, which has a total height of 3,776.24 meters, and a grain of sand. The cyber currency has also left its competitors Dogecoin and Litecoin far behind.
Bitcoin network with “100 times security”
In addition, the Bitcoin Mining Council came to the conclusion that the Bitcoin blockchain is the most secure crypto network, which is also significantly more powerful than all other competing networks combined. “With a hashrate of almost 267 EH [Exa-Hashs] Bitcoin represents 99% of all crypto power and offers 100 times the security of all other crypto networks combined,” said MicroStrategy CEO and Bitcoin fan Michael Saylor, who serves as the organization’s mouthpiece.
Bitcoin more sustainable than expected?
The issue of sustainability was also at the center of the quarterly report. Most recently, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has been repeatedly criticized for its high energy consumption – wrongly, according to the BTC Council. According to the calculations, based on a survey of council members, mining bitcoin consumes 266 terawatt hours, just 0.16 percent of global energy production, which is 165,317 terawatt hours. With 0.04 billion tons of CO2 expected to be produced when mining the coins, the prospecting business accounts for just 0.10 percent of global CO2 emissions, which the US Energy Information Administration estimated at 34.8 billion tons. “The results of this survey show that BMC members and survey respondents are currently using electricity with a 67.8% share of sustainable electricity,” the organization said. “Based on this data, it is estimated that the sustainable power mix of the global bitcoin mining industry is now 59.4% or increased by approximately 3% year-on-year from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022, making it one of the most sustainable industries globally .”
“Doubtful Result”
However, it is unclear how reliable the data presented is, as “BTC-ECHO” writes. The survey results were not scientifically checked, and there was also no transparent listing. It is therefore unclear how the survey was structured and how many members were surveyed or provided their results. According to the crypto portal, the organization has often been criticized in the past for its bias and inaccurate scientific work. For example, Larry Cermak, author of the crypto newsletter “The Block”, criticized the report for the second quarter of 2022. “This is really ridiculous,” Cermak wrote on Twitter. “No methodology disclosed, very dubious result and super small sample of about 5% of total hashrate. Nobody knows what the energy mix will be like until hashrate moves out of China and a new proper study is done. Why do people trust it?”
This is really laughable. No methodology disclosed, very dubious result and super small sample of like 5% of the total hashrate. No one knows what the energy mix will look like until the hashrate from China relocates and a new proper study is conducted. Why do people trust this?
– Larry Cermak ? (@lawmaster) July 1, 2021
Also, it should be borne in mind that the Bitcoin Mining Council, which consists of mining industry companies, is interested in a positive outcome. So this is not an independent investigation.
No evidence of more sustainable mining business
A study by the University of New Mexico from September 2022 also contradicts the results of Saylor and company. In this, Benjamin A. Jones, Andrew L. Goodkind and Robert P. Berrens examined the extent of the climate damage caused by Bitcoin mining. “We find no evidence that Bitcoin mining is becoming more sustainable over time,” Jones told science portal EurekAlert!. “Rather, our results suggest the opposite: Bitcoin mining is becoming dirtier and more climate-damaging over time. In short, Bitcoin’s ecological footprint is moving in the wrong direction.”
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