Nakamoto's Bitcoin consumes roughly the same amount of energy annually as Argentina and is going up. Ostensibly, a decentralized replacement for the dollar as a means of international exchange, it is incredibly costly in terms of energy consumed, which means more carbon emissions from combustion. Its proof of work consensus algorithm requires massive computer banks called "rigs" to solve ever increasing large computations.
"Miners" are competing for the relatively small rewards for solving a blockchain computation. This process requires huge amounts of energy because you have banks of computers all over the world trying to solve the same problem, and only one wins making it an enormous waste of resources. It takes upwards of ten minutes to complete a block. VISA, which is a virtually worldwide means of payment can process 1700 transactions a second compared to Bitcoin's 4. The catch is that VISA transactions are centralized and can be traced, Bitcoin's are anonymous making it a perfect choice for illicit commerce. The majority of bitcoin mining occurs in the USA. Where in the US, you may ask? Why in Texas of course, because everything is bigger in Texas! According to the Energy Reliability Council of Texas miners are using as much energy as the city of Houston by 2023. In 2018 the city of Pittsburg imposed an eighteen moratorium on new crypto-mining after residential electric bills increased by up to $300.