As the price of Bitcoin continues to soar, the most profitable mining operations in the world are the ones that manage to position themselves in a low-cost environment
The Bitcoin boom is well and truly underway, and investors are constantly looking for new ways to gain an advantage in this space. The best way to do this, it seems, is by cutting the energy costs of mining this precious commodity.
The Bitcoin mining industry consumes 22.5 TWh of energy annually, which amounts to 13,239,916 barrels of oil equivalent. With 12.5 bitcoins being mined every 10 minutes, that means the average energy cost of one bitcoin would equate to 20 barrels of oil equivalent.
Mining Bitcoin has the potential to be a wildly lucrative business, with a single Bitcoin now valued at more than 100 barrels of oil. That kind of price makes it one of the most valuable commodities on the planet and, just like oil, this commodity is increasingly valuable to mine if the energy costs can be kept down.
Bitcoin transactions are secured by computer miners, who are competing for rewards in the form of coins from the network. The more computation power they use, the better their chances. The drill rig is a computer, and hydraulic fracturing is done with the tip of your fingers. It’s a phenomenally energy-intensive process
To put this in perspective, the total energy consumption of the world’s Bitcoin mining activities is more than 40 times greater than that required to power the entire Visa network.
Source/More: How Many Barrels Of Oil Are Needed To Mine One Bitcoin? | OilPrice.com
