The crypto bear market has prevailed for a while, and that could have led to Bitcoin’s decreasing Bitcoin’s emissions. Alternative Finance research from Cambridge Center indicates a slump in BTC power consumption and demand.
Also, that led to a decline in emissions. Well, analysts have cited the Bitcoin price drop as a primary cause.
Emission and Price Drop Correlation
Assessing some curing mining indexes could help understand the connection between BTC price fall and decline in emissions. Blockchain.com revealed that network difficulty has surged over the past years, standing at 32.045t during this publication.
That means the duration and computing power required to add a new block has soared. Also, the total hashrate surged to press time 227.341 million TH/s during this publication. Nevertheless, the network difficulty increase plus the matching hash rate surge hasn’t led to a miner revenue uptick.
Besides the declined miner rewards resulting from BTC halving over the past years, the BTC price drop played a part. Bitcoin network attracted more miners because of mining profitability in the past years. That saw mining difficulty soaring.
Also, sophisticated mining machines saw a heightened demand. Nevertheless, falling revenue plus the soaring hash rate reduced BTC mining profitability. That brought the narrative to replace older minting rigs with energy-efficient options. Moreover, that triggered a decline in emissions and power consumption.
Indeed, the PoW (proof-of-work) mechanism has encountered constant criticism because of high energy consumption. ETH co-founder Vitalik Buterin suggested a 0.2% drop in global energy usage emerged after Ethereum shifted to the PoS (proof-of-stake) network.
As among the top PoW platform after Bitcoin, ETH’s migration to proof-of-work has triggered the rivalry between the two consensus models. PoS seems to outpace proof-of-work as far as energy efficiency is concerned. BTC’s energy consumption & emissions have declined due to its advancements in power-efficient rigs, though not as much compared to any proof-of-work blockchain.