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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Alex Hern UK technology editor

Electricity used to mine bitcoin plummets as crypto crisis widens

An employee inspects graphics processing units at a crypto farm in Romania last year
An employee inspects graphics processing units at a crypto farm in Romania last year. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

The amount of electricity consumed by the largest cryptocurrency networks has decreased by up to 50% as the “crypto winter” continues to eat at the incomes of “miners” and financial contagion spreads further throughout the sector.

The electricity consumption of the bitcoin network has fallen by a third from its high of 11 June, down to an annualised 131 terawatt-hours a year, according to estimates from the crypto analyst Digiconomist. That still equates to the annual consumption of Argentina, with a single conventional bitcoin transaction using the same amount of electricity that a typical US household would use over 50 days.

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