MBR_ISSUE 40_Lowres

Malta Business Review
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Bitcoin mining uses less than
1% of UK electricity supply
due to ‘Rip Off Britain’ pricing
CRYPTOCURRENCY miners are not
a major risk to Britain’s electricity
infrastructure, says the National Grid.
Blog site Coinlist.me has confirmed that
despite fears, miners pose little threat to
the country’s supply chain.
And that high-tech capitalists making
millions from mining are doing so in
countries like Iceland because buying
energy in Britain costs too much. This
comes despite claims that the currency
miners are causing ‘blackouts.’
Britain’s electricity network is unlikely to
be brought to its knees despite claims of
policy makers and activists that mining is so
enormous it poses a threat. However, while
there is no question the mining of currencies
currently uses double the electricity
consumption of Scotland from a global
perspective; in reality the UK is facing next to
no issues with the phenomenon.
The revelation from National Grid comes
after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney
blasted consumption rates branding them
“enormous” and called on regulation of the
currencies which he described as ‘speculative
mania’. His comments were made ahead of
the G20 summit in Argentina where Mr Carney
and other leading economists are to discuss
regulation of the sector. He said: “The costs
of Bitcoin mining are enormous. Its current
annual electricity consumption is estimated by
some to be up to 52 terawatt hours, double the
electricity consumption of Scotland.”
A spokeswoman for the National Grid
revealed however that while the service
operator is monitoring the rise of the
phenomenon that “future growth” in the UK
is not expected to be significant despite fears.
The National Grid said: “At present, their
mining is not a major contributor to demand
in GB. “Any GB cryptocurrency demand would
likely appear as a small component within the
data centre element of our Industrial and
Commercial electricity demand modelling
(data centres themselves perhaps accounting
for only around maybe 1% of total GB demand
although data is limited).
“Whilst cryptocurrency mining is clearly
growing at a fast rate globally, the miners
are likely to be most attracted to countries
with the very lowest electricity prices and
so future growth in GB is not currently
expected to be significant. “However,
whilst we have no immediate concerns in
relation to GB electricity demand, it is an
area that we actively monitor as part of
our electricity demand modelling in our
Future Energy Scenarios.”
The news comes as the issue of mining is hot
on the agenda in France where a company
has invented a heater which pays for itself by
mining coins. The Quarnot QC-1 is advertised
as the world’s first crypto-heater, allowing
consumers to mine cryptocurrencies and
utilise the heat generated.
David Merry, CEO of Investoo Group, which
owns Coinlist.me and exchange Cryptogo.
com said: “Crypto mining is huge in Iceland
and in countries like China it is fast becoming
a tool to make money for those able to do so.
“Cost of electricity varies widely from country
to country and while the UK is not the most
significant in terms of cost in Europe, it’s
certainly up there. People in Denmark,
Germany and Belgium pay the most according
to Eurostat but they are also charged huge tax
levies. It certainly could be argued that our
electricity supplies are more at risk of being
affected by cybersecurity issues like hacking.
Around 65% of UK business is concerned by
cyber attacks on energy networks so mining
really pales in comparison." MBR
Credit Coinlist.me and CryptoGo
46