Altcoin mining accounts for about 30% of the total electricity used for mining. This is stated in a study by specialists from the Munich Technical University.
The authors of the article Ulrich Hallersdorfer, Lena Klaasen, and Christian Stoll found that Bitcoin mining accounts for about 66% of the total electricity used by miners. The rest of the energy consumed by mining pools is used to mine the top 20 altcoins.
The study calculated the total amount of electricity used to mine Ether, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Litecoin, ZCash, Dash, Ethereum Classic, Decred, Dogecoin, Monero, Ravencoin and a number of other altcoins.
Experts emphasized that the growing scale of energy consumption by miners is of concern to environmentalists.
The article argues that energy consumption alone is not a problem in the context of climate change. But mining adds to the load that requires additional resources. The increase in capacity leads to a change in the intensity of harmful emissions, which has a negative impact on the environment.
The degree of influence of mining on the ecological situation has long been debated. Some researchers believe that this impact is minimal compared to the industrial sector and there is no reason to panic.
