As Bitcoin grows, the level of power consumption needed to mine grows too.  This is an area which is also receiving increasing attention. A new study published in the American Journal of Energy Academics Joule claims that by the end of 2018, Bitcoin network’s power consumption may account for 0.5% of the global total.

Currently, on average, every 10 minutes a new block on the Bitcoin network is created or “mined”, and the user who obtained the newly generated block is rewarded with 12.5 Bitcoin. This is the process known as “mining” and is the root ...