Ethereum Mining Needs More Energy Than Cyprus, Cambodia, Brunei

Ethereum energy consumption is more than the entire island of Cyprus, as well as Cambodia and Brunei, according to reports.

Mining of Ethereum, which is still available with standard home hardware, “could be consuming as much as 4.2 Terawatt-hours (tWh),” Business Insider notes, citing research by Digiconomist founder Alex de Vries.

The findings are part of the resource’s Ethereum Energy Consumption Index, launched to track expenditure as the network prepares to transfer from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-stake model Casper.

In a Twitter exchange yesterday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also forecasts other benefits for network participants and investors once Casper was activated.

ETH token issuance rates, for example, could fall “below 0” in future, he wrote in response to a query from Ethereum Classic Fund creator Barry Silbert.

Bitcoin and Ethereum energy together meanwhile additionally surpasses that of Jordan, Iceland and the Dominican Republic. Regarding payment systems, predictably, cryptocurrency’s power requirements vastly outweigh those associated with traditional networks such as Visa.

Per transaction, however, Ethereum is still considerably cheaper than Bitcoin concerning mining costs.