The Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, previously claimed via early emails that BTC would be a massive energy consumer in the future, and this was still when the top cryptocurrency was still seeing a low value. These early emails were unveiled by a renowned early collaborator on Bitcoin, Martii "Sirius" Malmi, sharing his entire email exchange with the anonymous creator.
The future talked about in 2009, which is the present and recent times, saw the significant effect of Bitcoin mining on energy consumption globally, not just in the US.
Satoshi Nakamoto Warned About Bitcoin Energy Consumption
Martii "Sirius" Malmi, a known Bitcoin developer from 2009 to 2011 who worked under Satoshi Nakamoto, released a massive collection of email conversations between him and the creator, now showing the crypto originator's claims of Bitcoin's predicted high energy consumption in the future.
For two years in his work as an early BTC collaborator, Sirius' emails with Nakamoto revealed the founder's words which warned about Bitcoin to be a significant energy consumer. Alongside this, there were also other predictions from Nakamoto behind BTC which are apparent now.
CoinDesk noted that Satoshi said that Proof of Work (PoW) is essential to Bitcoin's security, now a subject of debate for its high energy usage.
My email correspondence with Satoshi in 2009-2011: https://t.co/jyoX8gXckp
— Martti Malmi (@marttimalmi) February 23, 2024
Nakamoto's BTC Predictions in 2009 in Early Emails
Fast forward to the present, Bitcoin is now the largest cryptocurrency in the world and history, with the high energy consumption also a center of scrutiny against the coin, especially with its effects on communities where there are nearby mining facilities.
Among other predictions of Nakamoto is how Bitcoin would face massive legal scrutiny and regulations, including the non-financial uses of BTC.
Bitcoin's Energy Consumption and Nakamoto
A recent report about the United States' energy consumption revealed a significant new player that takes energy in the grid, and this is with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining which uses about two percent of the entire country. The estimates regard around 25 to 91 Terrawatt-hours consumed by Bitcoin mining operations, with the low estimate already equivalent to Utah's energy consumption as a whole.
This prediction from Nakamoto only shows how he and other collaborators believed in the growth of Bitcoin in the present time, from around fifteen years ago in the said emails. That being said, what remains unknown to the world is the identity of the Bitcoin creator and crypto originator, with several claims in the past, including the present trial of Craig Wright who claims to be the man behind the coin.
Whoever Nakamoto is, there is a belief from the crypto founder himself that in the future, Bitcoin will grow to be a massive coin and have many people mining for the coin and the blockchain. Nakamoto's Proof of Work (PoW) is known for being an important factor in Bitcoin's security, debated to be a high energy consumption process, with the creator already predicting this before.
