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Who doesn't love a historical British mystery series? The gorgeous countryside backdrops and the penchant for withholding information for fear of social outcast is the perfect blend for must-watch TV, especially when the source material is a beloved set of novels. Earlier this month, it was confirmed that one of the most acclaimed examples of this genre, Agatha Christie 's Poirot , would be receiving a fresh adaptation from the BBC and BritBox , with Edward Bluemel ( My Lady Jane ) solving crimes as the iconic Belgian detective in the new drama series Hercule .

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Network latency in bitcoin mining is driving massive energy waste ‪—‬ the annual equivalent of the total generation capacity of Switzerland's entire hydroelectric power system, scientists say. This wasted energy results from inefficiencies in the mining process and increasing competition among bitcoin miners.

In a new study published May 26 in the journal PNAS Nexus , the researchers aimed to provide a theoretical model to measure patterns within the networks powering bitcoin's distributed ledger system.

But they also calculated that in 2025, around 16,000 megawatts was wasted by fruitless bitcoin mining attempts, where competing mining efforts exert massive computational power to obtain the same units of bitcoin. This is roughly equivalent to the total generation capacity of Switzerland's 701 hydropower plants, according to statistics from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy .

It's important to note that this figure differs from the total energy consumed by bitcoin mining activity, estimated by researchers to stand at an annual level of 138 terawatt-hours, as of June 2024. This is higher than the annual energy consumption of several developed countries including Norway and the Netherlands .

Energy-guzzling crypto

Concerns around the environmental impact of bitcoin and other proof-of-work blockchain technologies have abounded in recent years.

In 2021, for example, bitcoin mining's water usage, primarily for liquid-cooled computer equipment, equated to more than the domestic water use of 300 million people in rural sub-Saharan Africa, according to a 2023 U.N. report .

Bitcoin is underpinned by a distributed ledger system, called a blockchain, which operates on a "proof-of-work" model. For a new unit of the digital currency to be generated, computing power must be used to solve a digital puzzle. In theory, the first entity to successfully "solve" the problem adds a new "block" of transactions to the ongoing chain and is granted a set quantity of bitcoin in return.

However, due to the explosion of interest in bitcoin as a financial trading asset, the competition for who can be the first to complete a block and claim the rewards has become incredibly fierce. A solution to the puzzle is based on computational power, with specialized hardware providing a greater advantage in speed. It has driven commercial entities to invest in building specialized data centers dedicated to such mining operations.

Because the race to be the first to mine a block is so competitive, the difference between first and second place can be just tiny fractions of a second. This often results in "accidental forks" — where two competing blocks are registered at almost exactly the same time.

In this scenario, the block with the longest chain of subsequent blocks built on top of it will eventually become a verified and legitimate part of the blockchain — earning its miners the bitcoin reward — while the competing block will be seen as invalid and worth nothing.

The energy needed to solve the proof of work and generate these "orphaned blocks" in the first place — as well as any subsequent blocks built on top of them before the winner is decided — is ultimately wasted.

An engineer stands next to a bitcoin mine. (Image credit: PixeloneStocker via Getty Images) "Despite their indication of a distributed network, accidental forks are an inefficiency of the Bitcoin protocol that leads to wasted computational resources (and thus energy), increasing the cost of network operations and its environmental impact to maintain a given level of security," the researchers wrote in the study.

According to the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) , a cryptocurrency analysis firm, bitcoin is the most dominant cryptocurrency by far, with a market capitalisation of more than $1.1 trillion — more than 80% larger than the next most popular currency, Ethereum. However, instead of proof-of-work, Ethereum uses a different form of consensus mechanism to establish block authorship, called "proof-of-stake," which is significantly less computationally intensive.

While other cryptocurrencies apart from bitcoin also use proof-of-work methods, bitcoin is around twice as large as its next nearest rival in this category, making it orders of magnitude more power-hungry.

Who rules the pool

Whereas previous models for analyzing fork rates treated all miners in the network as equal, this study considered elements such as network latency and geographic distribution, aiming to provide a "null model" — a baseline which can be used as a starting point to inform future analysis.

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The model also allowed the researchers to quantify other notable trends, such as the distribution of "mining pools" — consortiums in which mining operators pool their efforts to maximize their potential success. They identified a decline in the dominance of Chinese mining pools from 2022 following the country's ban on bitcoin mining while also discovering high levels of consolidation at the upper level of the bitcoin mining industry.

The report found that just three mining pools produce over 50% of new bitcoin blocks. This is a problem because it risks a "51% attack," whereby unscrupulous miners enter fraudulent information into the blockchain by ensuring that they always produce the longest chain and, therefore, become validated.

This level of consolidation distorts the market for processing fees that bitcoin users pay to have their transactions included in the next block, the researchers added, and could thus allow miners to arbitrarily delay the inclusion of specific transactions.

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TL;DR

Meta has capped its Conversation Focus feature on smart glasses to three hours of usage per month.

You can pay for a $19.99/month Meta One subscription to get 15 hours of usage per month.

Conversation Focus runs entirely on the glasses and doesn’t require an internet connection, setting a precedent for more on-device features to end up behind a paywall.

AI rate limits have become an unavoidable part of using AI tools . It’s one thing to limit cloud-based features; it’s another to limit a feature running on hardware you’ve already paid for. That’s exactly what Meta is doing with Conversation Focus.

As first reported by The Verge , the accessibility feature is now limited to three hours of use per month before users are asked to upgrade to a paid subscription.

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The latest Mario Kart World Tour update is here, providing a list of changes and fixes for the Switch 2's signature racer. What's most exciting, however, is right at the top of the list, as there are two new routes you can zoom through in the Knockout Tour.

Nintendo has added two fresh rallies to the mode: Drill Rally and Boomerang Rally. The first takes you from Wario Shipyard through to the ever-present Bowser's Castle, and the second goes from Salty Salty Speedway right up to Whistlestop Summit. So, you're not getting any all-new tracks, but two fresh options to spice up the Knockout Tour experience.

A brief teaser shows the two of them in motion, and I'll always have a soft spot for the aesthetics of Bowser's Castle. All the lava permeating a huge, gothic castle, emblazoned by the master's face over and over? Pure heavy metal, I love it in each and every entry.

"You can select these if you have played one of the rallies in Knockout Tour," says Nintendo's post on the update . Even if you haven't touched this mode all that much, you're not far away from checking out either of these if you so choose.

Characters who have lower acceleration have been given a speed boost, as has the gliding speed of those on the roster who're a little faster on the road, though Nintendo doesn't explicitly say who is included in this wave of buffs. Another distinctly Nintendo addition is stickers in Photo Mode, just to make all your captures that much cuter and prettier. I try to stay away from these modes, because I become a little obsessed with them. Getting good angles is extremely satisfying!

Anyway, there's a plethora of bug fixes, including sorting out an issue where time trials would register the wrong time when you cross the finish line. I can only imagine the annoyance this one caused. The patch is available now.

Be sure to check out what's around the corner with our roundup of new games .

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In an update early last month, Battlefield 6 accidentally made a change everyone loved. The in-game description of XP Boosters was changed to say that they would now count down only while you're actively playing a match, rather than in real time, as they have since launch. Wasting your precious boosts because you've had to log off is, unsurprisingly, annoying as hell.

Naturally, instead of formally making this highly requested change a reality, Battlefield Studios decided it didn't want the easy PR win, explaining : "We’re working to correct the in-game text in a future update and apologize for the confusion."

Unfortunately that wasn't the end of EA shooting itself in the foot and handing away the easy wins. Alongside the latest update on the final day of June, which overhauled gunplay , came a sequel to the slip-up.

Players were greeted by an official pop-up message claiming that XP Boosters would now work on in-game time. "We will track what percentage of the length of the match you have an XP Booster active, then multiply the final match bonus XP by the appropriate percentage for each," the alert reads. "Plus, for easier tracking and activation, the Booster menu is now located in the Lobby."

Earlier today, an in-game message about XP Boosters was sent in error. That message has now been removed, and there are no changes to how XP Boosters currently work.We appreciate all your feedback on this topic and will continue to share it with the team. https://t.co/U6kJWlYAmy June 30, 2026

Battlefield Studios quickly followed up on social media with a correction : "Earlier today, an in-game message about XP Boosters was sent in error. That message has now been removed, and there are no changes to how XP Boosters currently work."

That's a neat surprise! from r/Battlefield6

"That's a neat surprise!" cheered player UltimateGamingTechie on Reddit, elated by the goodwill of such a change, only to be shot down by the revelation that this in-game message was, in fact, a cruel, cruel lie. Sorry bud.

I'm not sure how—in the span of just one month—you accidentally make the right decision twice, and immediately turn it down twice, but it's happened. The one silver lining is that the developers "appreciate all your feedback on this topic" and will share it with the team, so maybe it'll see the light of day eventually. It could very well do, given we've been living in the 'we've heard your feedback' era of Battlefield Studios, following a rocky few months post-launch.

2026 games : All the upcoming games

Best PC games : Our all-time favorites

Free PC games : Freebie fest

Best FPS games : Finest gunplay

Best RPGs : Grand adventures

Best co-op games : Better together