Bitcoin and its energy usage: Existing approaches, important opinions, current trends, and future challenges

Abstract

Recent years have shown a great interest of public in buying and selling of crypto/digital currency. With hundreds of digital currencies in financial market, bitcoin remains the most widely used, adapted, and accepted currency around the world. However, the critics of bitcoin still consider it a threat to modern day power usage. This paper discusses the important pitfalls, pros, and cons related to bitcoin's energy consumption. The paper begins by highlighting the flexibilities cryptocurrency can bring to online money transfers compared to traditional 'fiat' architecture. Then, the focus of the paper entirely remains on listing various facts related to bitcoin's energy utilization including a brief description of several emerging approaches for energy optimization. This paper is concluded by revealing key current challenges associated to bitcoin's energy usage.