As Bitcoin continues to rise into mainstream adoption, its surging price rates aren't the only thing that experiences a sudden increase.
According to a research by British energy price comparison platform Power Compare, it has been discovered that the total volume of electricity required for mining Bitcoin - the computational process that keeps transactions on the blockchain moving - now amounts to more consumption than 159 individual countries.
Mining the popular cryptocurrency consumes more electricity than more than 20 countries in Europe.
And if compared to the continent of Africa, the only countries that consume more electricity than Bitcoin, is South Africa, Egypt and Algeria,
Power Compare further notes that Bitcoin’s current estimated annual electricity consumption stands at 29.05 TWh, or an equivalent of 0.13 percent of the world’s overall electricity needs.
If Bitcoin is a country, it would rank 61st globally in terms of electricity consumption.
According to Power Compare, Bitcoin mining has seen a nearly 30 percent increase in consumption over the last 30 days alone.
The annual Bitcoin mining electricity costs $1.5 billion, assuming that the mining occurs in places with low electricity rates. So the number should be higher in reality.
For example, the average retail price per KWh in the U.S. is 10.41 cents, which means if Bitcoins are all mined in the U.S., it would cost more than $3 billion. In comparison, price in the UK is more expensive at 10.10 pence per KWh. Bitcoin electricity consumption would cost £2.93 billion ($3.89 billion).
While the cost to mine Bitcoins is expensive, the estimated annual global mining revenues stand at $7.2 billion. What this means, Bitcoin is still very profitable.