Bitcoin [BTC] hashrate hits all-time high amidst concerns of mining causing global warming

The price of Bitcoin [BTC] has stayed in a sharply defined trading range for almost the past 2 months. However, the network continues to grow, as seen by the collective hashrate of the blockchain, which has recently reached an all-time high of 60 ExaHash/s.

While this marks a new era of security for the most secure blockchain by hashrate, it comes amidst concerns of Bitcoin mining spurring climate change. According to a study in the Nature Climate Change journal:

“We cannot predict the future of Bitcoin, but if implemented at a rate even close to the slowest pace at which other technologies have been incorporated, it will spell very bad news for climate change and the people and species impacted by it.”

It is known knowledge that miners gravitate towards geographical areas that have lower costs for electricity, as they tend to offer electricity obtained through sustainable means. Moreover, mining rigs have also become more and more efficient with each iteration.

The hashrate is said to have spiked due to a difficulty re-adjustment on 1st November, which increases the difficulty of finding a block. China is also demonstrating a dominance over the Bitcoin mining game, as BTC.com, BTC.top, AntPool and ViaBTC have found over 50% of all the blocks on the network. This has led to many raising concerns of centralization.

The network handles around 500,000 and 600,000 every day, with the average of transactions in the mempool being around 1,000. This can be attributed to the large number of miners on the network.