Bitcoin mining has long been criticized for its enormous energy consumption, but new research suggests the problem is even greater than previously understood. A study published in PNAS Nexus reveals that a substantial share of the electricity consumed by the Bitcoin network is effectively wasted on unsuccessful mining attempts, where thousands of computers compete to solve the same cryptographic puzzle but only one ultimately earns the reward, tells Live Science.
The researchers focused on the role of network latency, the brief delays in communication between miners distributed around the world. Because miners do not receive updates simultaneously, multiple participants often continue working on a block that has already been solved elsewhere. These redundant calculations consume large amounts of electricity without contributing to the blockchain. Using a theoretical model of Bitcoin’s distributed network, the researchers estimated that these fruitless mining efforts wasted roughly 16,000 megawatts of power in 2025, equivalent to the total generating capacity of Switzerland’s 701 hydroelectric plants.
The study distinguishes this wasted energy from Bitcoin’s already massive overall electricity demand. Previous estimates place the network’s annual electricity consumption at approximately 138 terawatt-hours, exceeding the annual power use of countries such as Norway and the Netherlands. The newly identified inefficiencies represent an additional burden created by the competitive nature of proof-of-work mining rather than by the fundamental process itself.
The findings add to growing concerns about Bitcoin’s environmental footprint. Beyond electricity use, earlier studies have linked cryptocurrency mining to high water consumption for cooling systems, electronic waste from rapidly obsolete mining hardware, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil fuel-powered electricity generation. As mining has become increasingly industrialized, companies have invested in specialized data centers equipped with powerful application-specific integrated circuit processors to gain even fractions of a second over competitors.
The researchers suggest that reducing communication delays or redesigning blockchain consensus mechanisms could eliminate much of this unnecessary energy loss without compromising network security. Their work highlights that improving the efficiency of cryptocurrency systems requires addressing not only total power consumption but also the hidden costs of redundant computation, offering new insights into one of the digital economy’s most energy-intensive technologies.