When most people think of Bitcoin, they picture digital money, speculation, or blockchain technology. But there’s another aspect that often gets overlooked: the massive computing power that keeps the Bitcoin network running. By now, this power even surpasses the capacities of the largest technology companies in the world.
⚙️ What Does “Computing Power” Mean in the Bitcoin Network?
Behind the scenes of the Bitcoin system, millions of specialized computers – called “miners” – are working nonstop. They continuously solve small mathematical puzzles. By doing this, they secure the Bitcoin blockchain and make sure no one can fake or manipulate transactions.
The speed at which these tasks are solved is called the hashrate. Think of it like the RPM of a huge engine: the faster it runs, the more work gets done.
📈 The Current State – A Superlative
In September 2025, the Bitcoin network reaches over 1005 exahashes per second. That’s a number almost beyond imagination. To put it into perspective:
- 🔢 The network performs trillions upon trillions of calculations every single second.
- 🖥️ Even the fastest supercomputer in the world looks tiny in comparison – it only manages a fraction of this output.
🏢 How It Compares to the Tech Giants’ Data Centers
Big cloud providers like Amazon (AWS), Google (Cloud), and Microsoft (Azure) also run enormous data centers. These house millions of servers that power almost everything we use online: search engines, streaming, cloud storage, artificial intelligence, and much more.
But even if you add up all their raw capacity, they don’t come close to the sheer processing force of the Bitcoin network. With one major difference:
- ⚡ Bitcoin miners can only perform one type of task – solving their cryptographic puzzles.
- 🌐 Data centers from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are versatile. They can handle countless different tasks and form the backbone of today’s digital world.
🔒 Why So Much Power?
This enormous computing power isn’t for show – it’s for security. The higher the hashrate, the harder it becomes for attackers to manipulate the blockchain. In other words: the stronger the engine, the tougher the system.
⚡ Electricity Use – Wasteful or Worth It?
Headlines often claim that “Bitcoin wastes energy.” But this argument misses the bigger picture:
- ✅ Energy always has a purpose.
Bitcoin uses electricity to maintain a secure, global, decentralized financial network. That’s not waste – that’s the cost of security and independence. - 🏦 Compare it to the banking sector.
Traditional finance consumes massive amounts of energy:- Bank branches, office buildings, ATMs, and data centers
- Millions of employees, worldwide logistics, transport, and infrastructure
Studies suggest that the global banking system consumes far more energy than the Bitcoin network – but this rarely makes the headlines.
- 🌱 Bitcoin is becoming more efficient.
Miners actively seek out cheap or surplus electricity: hydro power during oversupply, unused wind and solar energy, or natural gas that would otherwise be flared. In this way, the network can even help put renewable energy to better use.
So the real question isn’t “Does Bitcoin use energy?” but rather: What value does society get in return for that energy?
🏁 Conclusion
The Bitcoin network is likely the largest decentralized computing system in the world. With its enormous strength, it outpaces even the combined capacities of the biggest tech companies – at least if you measure raw calculations.
But it’s important to understand the difference:
- 💪 Bitcoin miners are like millions of elite athletes, each trained to perform just one move perfectly.
- 🤹 Data centers from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are more like decathletes – not always as extreme in a single discipline, but highly versatile across many.
And when it comes to energy, Bitcoin does consume a lot – but so does the existing financial system, often much more. Instead of framing it as “waste,” we should ask what value a secure, independent, and global digital currency brings to the table.