Is Bitcoin ruining the planet?

There's no question about the current price of Bitcoin. Which is currently standing at $16889. While Bitcoin can be very volatile, it can also be a rather good currency. Some would say it's way better than any real currency in the world. But for now, it doesn't matter. According to Eric Holthaus, former columnist for the Wall Street Journal, current contributor to Slate, Bitcoin's success or failure isn't important anymore. What is important is its need for power. And by power, we mean electricity.

According to Holthause, the extreme growth of cryptocurrencies has created an ever-increasing need for computing power. He says that every bitcoin transaction today needs as much energy as nine homes in the U.S. for a day. It is estimated that the total energy the bitcoin hardware needs is 31 terawatt-hours per year, which, if we put it in a different way, is actually more than 150 individual countries in the world consume annually. And that's now. By summer of 2019 the power consumption will be as high as United State's and by beginning of 2020 it will need as much electricity as the entire world today.

You can read the article by Holthouse here.