Bitcoin, if you believe the rhetoric from many of its champions, is the future of ecommerce (and everything else). But its stability - or not - as a currency is what has kept most people talking until now.
Concerns over high demand on electricity when, ironically, its "miners" are handling the service are now emerging but will probably not be enough to stall its progress.
Bitcoin's incredible price run to break over $7,000 this year has sent its overall electricity consumption soaring, as people worldwide bring more energy-hungry computers online to mine the digital currency.
An index from cryptocurrency analyst Alex de Vries, aka Digiconomist, estimates that with prices the way they are now, it would be profitable for Bitcoin miners to burn through over 24 terawatt-hours of electricity annually as they compete to solve increasingly difficult cryptographic puzzles to "mine" more Bitcoins.
That's about as much as Nigeria, a country of 186 million people, uses in a year.