"How bad is bitcoin for the environment really?"

[Budi]

From March 2021
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/bitcoin-environment-mining-energy-cryptocurrency-b1819545.html%3famp




How bad is bitcoin for the environment really?

Cryptocurrency now uses nearly as much electricity as Argentina but analysts claim technology will soon be mostly powered by renewable energy

Bitcoin mining devours the same amount of energy as countries like Argentina and the Netherlands

SNIP
The computing power required to support bitcoin's underlying network now requires nearly as much energy as the entire country of Argentina, leading to criticism about its environmental footprint.

Analysis by the University of Cambridge suggests the bitcoin network uses more than 121 terawatt-hours (TWh) annually, which would rank it in the top 30 electricity consumers worldwide if it were a country.

Concerns about bitcoin's energy demands have been around since the very beginning, with crypto pioneer Hal Finney tweeting about potential future CO2 emissions on 27 January 2009 – just two weeks after receiving the first ever bitcoin transaction from the cryptocurrency's pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.


"Bitcoin's energy consumption has more than quadrupled since the beginning of its last peak in 2017 and it is set to get worse because energy inefficiency is built into bitcoin's DNA," Charles Hoskinson, CEO of leading cryptography firm IOHK, tells The Independent.

"Bitcoin's carbon footprint will get exponentially worse because the more its price rises, the more competition there is for the currency and thus the more energy it consumes."

More.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. Very true, and part of why I've never gotten into it though I've been interested ...

There's absolutely no way I would ever mine using non-renewable energy. It really is messed up to do so, morally, IMHO.

[Basic LA]

2. Seems counterintuitive.

A computer is either on (using power) or off. It doesn't use more power if you're mining Bitcoin than if you're just reading email. It's like saying your TV draws more power when watching an action movie instead of a slow documentary. I must be wrong and just not understanding.

[Eugene]

3. Modern CPUs use more power under a load than at idle.

Cryptomining is competitive and has to be very fast, typically running pedal to the metal. Verifying a transaction is also computing intensive.

Mining a Bitcoin ($57,000) takes an estimated 900 kWh.

[Basic LA]

4. Makes it clearer explained that way.

Thank you, Eugene.

[abqtommy]

5. The only thing I'm sure of is that somebody's making a lot of money offa Bitcoin. And it

isn't me and probably isn't you.