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Bitcoin Skeptics
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The continued growth of power-hungry Bitcoin could lock in catastrophic climate change, according to a new study.
The cryptocurrency’s growth, should it follow the adoption path of other widely used technologies (like credit cards and air conditioning), would alone be enough to push the planet to 2-degree C warming, the red line value the world agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
Bitcoin essentially converts electricity into cash, via incredibly complex math problems designed to eliminate the need for government-sponsored currencies. https://coincentral.com/the-untold-bitcoin-stories-of-bitcoin-millionaires/ over the past few years, but it’s also raised some significant concerns about the ethics of sucking up excess energy on a finite planet.
The libertarian nerdbucks account for only a tiny fraction (0.033 percent) of global transactions right now, but its rapid growth and already sizable energy usage are worrisome. This latest study, from researchers at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, adds to the pile of evidence that Bitcoin needs to cut down dramatically on energy use — or risk taking down our chances for a clean energy future with it.
Krause MJ, Tolaymat T. Quantification of energy and carbon costs for mining cryptocurrencies. Nature Sustainability 2018. Quantification of energy and carbon costs for mining cryptocurrencies
There are now hundreds of cryptocurrencies in existence and the technological backbone of many of these currencies is blockchain—a digital ledger of transactions. The competitive process of adding blocks to the chain is computation-intensive and requires large energy input. Here we demonstrate a methodology for calculating the minimum power requirements of several cryptocurrency networks and the energy consumed to produce one US dollar’s (US$) worth of digital assets.
From 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2018, we estimate that mining Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Monero consumed an average of 17, 7, 7 and 14 MJ to generate one US$, respectively. Comparatively, conventional mining of aluminium, copper, gold, platinum and rare earth oxides consumed 122, 4, 5, 7 and 9 MJ to generate one US$, respectively, indicating that (with the exception of aluminium) cryptomining consumed more energy than mineral mining to produce an equivalent market value.
While the market prices of the coins are quite volatile, the network hashrates for three of the four cryptocurrencies have trended consistently upward, suggesting that energy requirements will continue to increase. During this period, we estimate mining for all 4 cryptocurrencies was responsible for 3–15 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
There are now hundreds of cryptocurrencies in existence and the technological backbone of many of these currencies is blockchain—a digital ledger of transactions. The competitive process of adding blocks to the chain is computation-intensive and requires large energy input. Here we demonstrate a methodology for calculating the minimum power requirements of several cryptocurrency networks and the energy consumed to produce one US dollar’s (US$) worth of digital assets.
From 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2018, we estimate that mining Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Monero consumed an average of 17, 7, 7 and 14 MJ to generate one US$, respectively. Comparatively, conventional mining of aluminium, copper, gold, platinum and rare earth oxides consumed 122, 4, 5, 7 and 9 MJ to generate one US$, respectively, indicating that (with the exception of aluminium) cryptomining consumed more energy than mineral mining to produce an equivalent market value.
While the market prices of the coins are quite volatile, the network hashrates for three of the four cryptocurrencies have trended consistently upward, suggesting that energy requirements will continue to increase. During this period, we estimate mining for all 4 cryptocurrencies was responsible for 3–15 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/mining-bitcoin-is-as-energy-intensive-as-mining-gold
"...Bitcoin could single-handedly drive two degrees Celsius of global warming within the next three decades, due to carbon dioxide emissions related to its energy consumption.
But cryptocurrency adoption continues to climb. More than 100,000 companies accept Bitcoin, including Microsoft, PayPal, and Wikipedia."
Old
New Member
Guess people better give up the internet all together. Wonder how many tons of CO2 this forum produces. Warming the earth just like cattle farts.
Berkeley Lab: It Takes 70 Billion Kilowatt Hours A Year To Run The Internet
Berkeley Lab: It Takes 70 Billion Kilowatt Hours A Year To Run The Internet
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"This is like a market update from an alternate reality. None of the "names" being alluded to actually exist as investable entities in real life. It's literally a report from the land of make-believe. I'm fascinated by this..."
Roco Bama
Member
Do you think the crypto market will ever recover or is it over ?
Mostly losers ...
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