在線月刊《Nature Sustainability》登載的一篇論文指出，挖比特幣需要的能量比開采銅、金等金屬還多。

人們經常把比特幣稱為“新型黃金”。此項研究發現，“開采”出1美元比特幣需要的能量大約是開采黃金的三倍。

俄亥俄州橡樹嶺科學與教育研究所的研究人員還比較了挖掘其他加密貨幣消耗的能量，結果發現它們普遍比開采黃金更“費電”。不過，與此項研究覆蓋的所有其他金屬和加密貨幣相比，開采鋁礦的能耗要高的多。

開采金屬礦藏和挖掘加密貨幣需要的技術及工具有天壤之別。

加密貨幣采礦是“礦工”對一組加密貨幣交易進行驗證并將其添加到區塊鏈中的過程，區塊鏈則是一個公共交易賬本。

此項工作需要強大的計算機、服務器和冷卻設備，而所有這些都讓能源成本節節攀升。在部分國家和地區，能源開支已經讓購買一個比特幣的價格和“開采”一個比特幣所需要的電費大致相當。

今年，和比特幣挖礦有關的電力需求預計將增長兩倍。如果真是如此，加密貨幣采礦消耗的能量將超過阿根廷的全國用電量。

受該趨勢影響，一些城市已經提高了加密貨幣采礦的電費。（財富中文網）

The “mining” of bitcoin, a type of cryptocurrency, requires more energy than that of mining metals like copper and gold, according to a paper published in Nature Sustainability.

Mining bitcoin, which the report points out is often referred to as “new gold,” requires about three times more energy per U.S. dollar than that required to mine gold, the study found.

Researchers at the Oakridge Institute for Science and Education in Ohio also compared the energy consumption required to mine other cryptocurrencies, which were all found to be generally higher than that of gold. Aluminum mining, however, required substantially more energy than all other metals and cryptocurrencies compared in the study.

Mining metal and mining cryptocurrency require a vastly different set of skills and tools.

Cryptocurrency mining is a process in which a “miner” packages a block of cryptocurrency transactions into a blockchain, a ledger of transactions.

The work requires powerful computers, servers, and cooling devices, which all add to growing energy costs. In some countries, energy costs make purchasing a Bitcoin as expensive as mining one.

The power demand associated with Bitcoin mining is predicted to triple this year and if it does, the energy consumption required to mine cryptocurrency will surpass that of entire countries.

The trend has led some municipalities to raise energy prices for cryptocurrency mining operations.