Morgan Stanley: In 2018, miners cryptocurrencies will need more energy than the whole of Argentina

Electricity consumed by cryptocurrency miners in 2018 will exceed the amount of electricity consumed by such a country as Argentina. To this conclusion, writes Bloomberg, came analysts at Morgan Stanley.

The general needs of miners in electricity can reach 140 teravatt hours, which will be 0.6% of all energy consumption in the world. For comparison, the electric car market will potentially consume such an amount of energy only by 2025.

This figure is noted by Morgan Stanley analysts, so far is too small to significantly affect the global energy market, but its sharp growth can potentially become a good driver for the development of large companies engaged in wind and solar energy, as well as energy. Other potential beneficiaries can become large players in the oil market, investing in renewable energy sources.

Recently, the main number of miners has concentrated in China and South Korea, where the cost of electricity is much low. However, analysts note, the actions of regulators can significantly affect this fact - in particular, the South Korea authorities several days ago declared intention to generally prohibit the trade in cryptocurrency in the country.

At the same time, Morgan Stanley analysts clarified that their research cannot be considered a “exact science”, noting that reality can differ significantly from calculations in one direction or another.

• According to Bloomberg, at the end of 2017, Bitcoin miners consumed 20.5 teravat hours a year. Three quarters of this amount falls on China and amounts to 0.2% of electricity consumption in the country.
• During 2017, the Bitcoin course rose by more than 1400%. In the early days of 2018, cryptocurrency lost about 5%in price.