Bitcoin Mining Machine Efficiency Doubled in Five Years

Sometimes an idea, stated simply and dramatically, takes hold of the collective imagination and persists. That is why Bitcoin has been associated with consuming more energy than a “small country,” according to the Harvard Business Review, or even “many countries”, according to the New York Times. But five years have passed since this alarming analogy grabbed headlines, and the potency of individual Bitcoin mining machines – aka application-specific integrated circuit miners, or ASICs – has only improved dramatically, leading to greater network efficiency. And for Bitcoin miners, this may also lead to greater profitability.