Why does bitcoin consume ‘insane’ energy?

Cryptocurrency fans have counted Tesla boss Elon Musk as among their champions, but this week he rocked their world by questioning the future of the digital assets and singling out carbon emissions from bitcoin mining for particular criticism.

“Energy usage trend over past few months is insane,” Musk tweeted on Thursday, sharing a chart from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), his latest missive in a salvo that’s caused bitcoin’s price to drop.

Obtaining Bitcoin is an energy-intensive endeavor, and the chart showed the evolution of its power usage, rising constantly from 2016 and accelerating sharply in 2020 on an annualised basis to hit its current level of 149 terawatt-hours (TWh), an all-time high.