A recent survey undertaken by the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) on bitcoin mining threw up encouraging findings. The survey revealed that the mining of bitcoins is increasingly being done using sustainable power. The bitcoin mining industry, the survey found, has increased the share of sustainable power for mining from 1% to 58.5%.
The BMC is a forum to educate people all over the world about bitcoins and bitcoin mining. The mining of bitcoins has for long earned a bad name over the perception that it adversely affects the environment due to high power consumption. Miners have increasingly begun looking for sustainable and environmentally friendly ways to mine bitcoins.
The survey found that the rise in the share of sustainable power for bitcoin mining has of late witnessed a significant jump. To assess the adoption by bitcoin miners of sustainable power means three measures were used – technology efficiency, power consumption, and the mix of sustainable power.
Data indicates that sustainable power was being used by about 46% of the miners. The report also found that in Q4 the BMC hashrate had increased by 77%. Also, it was found that the use of sustainable power in crypto mining had risen to 66.1%. Also, when compared to Q3, the technological efficiency of bitcoin mining had also improved significantly.
The significant improvements observed are attributable to several factors. Chief among them are – radical advances in semiconductor technology and the focus on sustainability in bitcoin mining. Also contributing were other factors such as the growth of mining in North America, the exodus from China, and the deployment of advanced and improved mining technologies.
The increase in the hash rate to 77% over the last two quarters is also indicative of the increased focus on sustainability.
