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How environmental is Cryptocurrency ?
As an intangible asset you would have thought that mining for cryptocurrency would be negligible in terms of pollution because it is conducted through computers. There are no actual physical resources involved, but instead warehouses of mainframes connected to the Internet process the necessary calculations required for the 22 million crypto tokens (coins) in existence.
However the carbon footprint for Bitcoin usage is actually 56.09 Mega tonnes (Mt) of CO2 per-year.
To see the energy wastage follow this link to the Digiconomist where you will see that, at the time of publication, a single Bitcoin transaction being 1135.42 kWh which is equivalent to the energy usage of a large house over a period of 39 days!
What is a kWh? A kilowatt hour is a unit of energy that signifies the amount of energy used in one hour by a single instrument, in this case one calculation so one bitcoin.
Bitcoin miners and Bitcoin mainframe operations are drawn to areas of cheap electricity such as China to enable long-term operation for minimal cost. However this electricity is sourced from coal power stations which emit large quantities of CO2. In fact the annualised energy consumption of Bitcoin is greater than the energy consumption of many countries such as the Netherlands or Argentina.
However the carbon footprint for Bitcoin usage is actually 56.09 Mega tonnes (Mt) of CO2 per-year.
To see the energy wastage follow this link to the Digiconomist where you will see that, at the time of publication, a single Bitcoin transaction being 1135.42 kWh which is equivalent to the energy usage of a large house over a period of 39 days!
What is a kWh? A kilowatt hour is a unit of energy that signifies the amount of energy used in one hour by a single instrument, in this case one calculation so one bitcoin.
- 1 kiloWatt -1000 Wh
- 1 megaWatt - 1,000,000 Wh
- 1 gigaWatt - 1,000,000,000 Wh
- 1 teraWatt - 1,000,000,000,000 Wh
Bitcoin miners and Bitcoin mainframe operations are drawn to areas of cheap electricity such as China to enable long-term operation for minimal cost. However this electricity is sourced from coal power stations which emit large quantities of CO2. In fact the annualised energy consumption of Bitcoin is greater than the energy consumption of many countries such as the Netherlands or Argentina.
Whilst the energy consumption of bitcoin is increasing exponentially, unfortunately the introduction of renewable and sustainable energy production is not matching this.
In the meantime Become Carbon Negative continue to plant trees to counteract the pollution caused by Cryptocurrency mining.
In the meantime Become Carbon Negative continue to plant trees to counteract the pollution caused by Cryptocurrency mining.
