Infographic: Bitcoin Devours More Electricity Than Many Countries By Niall McCarthy
Among other things, Bitcoin has been criticized for price volatility, use in illegal transactions and thefts from exchanges. It has also proven highly controversial for the sheer amount of energy it requires.
The University of Cambridge maintains an online tool that estimates the level of electricity the crypto-currency network uses and compares it with other entities. It estimates that Bitcoin uses 143 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per year, more than many countries and around 0.65 percent of worldwide electricity consumption. A comparison by Visual Capitalist also shows that it also consumes far more power than the world s largest technology companies.