Ethereum and Bitcoin Mining Is Consuming as Much Electricity as a Small Country
 

Consumption indexes are showing that cryptocurrency miners are using extravagant amounts of energy on par with certain small countries: Bitcoin mining is supposedly using as much energy as Central Asia's Turkmenistan, while Ethereum is competing with Moldova in Europe. The power requirements for the latter, which is expected to overtake Bitcoin in market cap, are expected to go down as its developers work on an algorithm update. ...Bitcoin mining is pegged at an estimated annual electricity consumption value of 14.54 terawatt hours. The average Bitcoin transaction requires 163 kilowatt hours of electricity, which is enough to power the average US household for about five and a half days. That would put Bitcoin on par with Turkmenistan, which ranks 81st when it comes to energy consumption of countries around the globe. Ethereum mining has annualized average electric consumption that is roughly a third of Bitcoin, or 4.69 TWh. The average Ethereum transaction requires 49 KWh, which is enough to power a US household for about a day and a half. When compared to global energy consumption, Ethereum most closely aligns with Moldova, which ranks 120th globally.

http://www.hardocp.com/news/2017/07/...small_country/