Cryptocurrency fever is at an all time high. It is to blame for the lack of video card availability everywhere. Ethereum in particular, unlike Bitcoin, utilizes GPU power considerably. It now sits behind the latter as the second most valuable cryptocurrency. Even with a slight hiccup via flash crash and fake news value drop, it bounced back quickly. It opened on Wednesday at $282.44, up 13 percent from closing Tuesday. In January 2017, the price of Ethereum is a measly $8.19, but at its peak reached $398 in June 2017.
All those GPUs that are missing in the stores and missing from gaming PCs are now inside mining rigs. There are several video cards on a single board via risers constantly running 24/7, exclusively for Ethereum mining. Multiply this by thousands and you get a massive strain on the grid.
Via the Digiconomist’s power consumption statistics, this is now drawing equivalent to 4.6TWh annually. In comparison, the island nation of Cyprus uses 4.18TWh annually. That country has a population of 1.14 million people living in 9,251 km2. Bitcoin’s power consumption drain is even crazier at 14.3TWh, which is more than three times that of Ethereum’s . Bitcoin and Ethereum combined draw 18.9 TWh which is greater than Syria’s 18.22 TWh. Syria covers an area of 185,180 km2 and is home to 17 million people.
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