The New York Times published an article featuring calls from experts saying Bitcoin will eventually need to follow what Ethereum is doing and change to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.
Bitcoin’s ravenous demand for electricity is an undisputed fact. But things get muddled when it comes to where that energy comes from, i.e., fossil fuels vs. renewable sources. As much as switching to a PoS mechanism would bypass both issues, that isn’t something that will happen soon, if at all.
Bitcoin’s environmental impact
Data from Cambridge University estimates Bitcoin’s annualized electricity consumption is 138.6 TWh. That’s more than Sweden, which consumes 131.8 TWh of electricity a year.
Bitcoin relies on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism. This process enables miners to add new blocks based on whoever comes up with the winning PoW.
Finding the winning PoW is matching a “guess” of random letters and numbers to the target. The more guesses get churned out, the mo
Źródło: https://cryptoslate.com/bitcoin-ethereum-climate-impact/
