Bitcoin Forum

Ever since cryptocurrency has existed people have started to mine it using their PCs or Miners’ GPUs. Considering that cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of electricity because of it using a lot of processing power, does it really cause a large ecological impact on the world?

Every time I see mining operations around the world, there are multiple miners in one place ranging from dozens to even hundreds in for those who can afford a lot of miners. That got me thinking that since there are a lot of GPUs running at once then it must use a lot of electricity which means that power plants, as a result, will need to generate more electricity which will lead to more pollution.

Is the carbon footprint of these mining operations large enough to make a large impact on the world or it doesn’t really cause a lot of pollution in the long run.
What do you guys think and are there any greener solutions for mining cryptocurrencies?

You need to understand that it needs to take energy which is valuable to be able to secure the network. If it didn't require any actual work then would it be as secure? Probably not.

So just like banks and offices leave their lights on at night for security bitcoin is no different. It needs to require something that is available for most at a cost for decentralization and security.

This is why the miners who use electricity and pay for it get rewarded with block reward and fees. I'm sure it's possible to make it greener but most likely wouldn't be efficient.

There is wind power and solar energy but how much of bitcoins hashrate does that equal too? Probably not even 1%.

It has been discussed a lot of times in this forum. Some mining farms use alternative energy since it is more cost-efficient and environment-friendly. Even paper money, digital cash, banks cause pollution, imagine the amount of plastic and papers and energy they consume to produce cards, money, coins, ATM, receipts and etc.

This has been discussed many times before. Have a look at the following threads:

[2019-06-16] Bitcoin Mining Consumes 1% of Global Energy, Report Reveals (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5154891.0)
Here's food for thought: Bitcoin's carbon footprint (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5130939)
Coinshares research: 74% of Bitcoin mining is powered by renewable energy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5153397.0)

Not at present.

The report discussed in the first thread I linked to above, shows that bitcoin mining was estimated to use around 0.2% of global electricity production at time of release (the news article incorrectly stated 1% - see my post in that thread for a breakdown). Hashpower is steadily increasing, but the efficiency of mining equipment is increasing faster, so this percentage is likely to drop rather than increase as one might expect.

Also note the report in the last thread linked above, which shows that almost three quarters of bitcoin mining is powered by renewable energy, again a figure which is likely only to increase. Note that only 15% of general electricity consumption in the US is from renewable sources.

When you compare to other things that you don't even give a second thought to - lighting, heating, air con - the amount of energy used by bitcoin is an order of magnitude or two smaller. Add in the fact that bitcoin uses over 4 times more renewable sources, and the pollution caused by bitcoin is minuscule in the grand scheme of things.

Indeed. Cryptocurrency mining is environment-friendly because it doesn't produce gases that come from cars, factories, volcanoes and so on. The things that you only need in cryptocurrency mining is a lot of graphics card in a computer and an air-conditioned place to cool down your computer while mining, that is why there are no any chances for crypto mining to produce more pollution.

Another overlooked point of energy use is video streaming. ref https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45798523
From the article:All in all it makes the energy used by crypto mining rather insignificant. ;)

I think it's not exactly pollution which these mining procedures are making. Atleast directly. They are consuming Electricity and emitting heat obviously. We generally don't constitute it as any type of pollution. But yes it's leaving a hell lot of carbon footprints. But the truth is almost every activity of ours is leaving such carbon footprints. There are far more polluting industries much useless than Bitcoin which needs to be take care of first. Moreover, most of mining is being done in developed or developing countries which are more or less on renewable sources of Energy which ensures it's not even effecting pollution indirectly.

I know this has been discussed several times, but what you should ask yourself is:

How Long Will Bitcoin Mining Be Sustainable? If miners now complain that they have losses or make very little profit, then I wonder what mining will be like 10 years from now? the cost of electricity will be much higher 10 years from now and how will mining be? Some people may tell me that the bitcoin price will also be much higher than the current price, but I ask again what if the bitcoin price is not much higher 10 years from now?

Mining is environment-friendly and doesn't leave much carbon or waste. The only pollution that mining cause is the noise that comes from the GPU fans and the heat that comes from it. Mining rig can be set up by any body in their home and it's cost-effective.

there is no doubt that as long as we have PoW consensus based cryptos,we need more and more electricity and Crypto mining is consuming more electricity then electricities consumed by few small countries. The solution is PoS but I dont think BTC can be shifted to PoS. So I say yes crypto mining is not environment friendly at all.

It uses quite a bit of electricity, and it's pretty obvious that the huge mining farms that are usually run in China don't help with the environment, but I don't think this is an issue that people need to be focused on.

Banking companies, tech companies, etc, etc, they all spend 100x more electricity and populate the planet more, if we truely want a solution, we need the big people to move towards a more renewable energy source and everyone else to follow.

Compared to factories that product non-biodegradable products such as plastics, styrofoams, metal cans, and nuclear waste? Or compared to literal mining operations depleting our natural and limited resources rapidly? The idea that Bitcoin/Crypto mining is contributing to more waste compared to them is just some kind of black propaganda just to shift our minds in the real problem. This is just one of the things a nocoiner would just say just to point out a kind of negative towards Bitcoin yet they completely ignore more contributors to the pollution as compared to crypto mining. In crypto mining you just need electicity to power it and if you are using renewable energy then you aren't really contributing to the ecological damage in our world.  

I think it won't cause much damage on long run because green clean energy solutions are even more common and powerful nowadays. There is solar, wind, hydro energy sources and many investiments going on these concepts, like Tesla business, which is making a big success with solar energy production and development.
We shouldn't fear the usage of technology thinking it is harming the planet or something like this, otherwise we wouldn't be on the current technological developed level we are today. Pollution is a consequence of this technological improvement, until we achieve the perfection we need to accept the *collateral effects*.

Hmhm. A banks electricity spent on powering their offices can probably cover all of the electricity used to power bitcoin mining operations. Currently, there is not a big enough carbon footprint to care, but this is definelty food for thought.

We need to move away from burning fossil fuels, and instead move to a more renewable future, where we are powered off wind, water and solar electriciy.

Jesus, that's a lot... Very interesting actually.

Well we are only talking about dams here that is being shared by the public but what about dams or renewable energy built for that certain purpose and that is too only generate electricity enough to run their mining operations? I've read dozens of articles before where mining farms are buying off decommissioned or unused renewable developing facilities which means they aren't sharing to nobody but themselves., just like this one (https://www.hydroreview.com/2018/08/24/trend-watch-hydro-plant-to-be-fully-dedicated-power-source-for-cryptocurrency-mining/#gref). Still this can't prove that crypto mining is more dirtier compared to the things I have previously said.

The most important thing is that the *collateral effects* do not bury modern civilization under them. The entire current struggle for green energy and technology often degenerates into a shift from environmentally and economically prosperous countries to poor countries that cannot afford such luxuries. But the earth is one and it will surely boomerang back.
And if you dig deep, you can find harm in green technologies - hydroelectric power plants, for example, destroy the ecosystem downstream.

Exactly. If you look at the guy above complaining that cryptocurrency mining is responsible for 10 million tonnes of CO₂, then sure, that sounds like an awful lot, but put it in context and it is next to nothing. First of all, he conveniently misses out the fact that that is over a 3 year period (2016 - 2018), meaning the real figure is 3.33 million tonnes per year. Console gaming (not including PC and mobile gaming) generates 30 million tonnes a year. Streaming online pornography generates 100 million tonnes per year. Global CO₂ production is around 40 billion tonnes per year, making bitcoin less than 0.01%.

Bitcoin is a fraction of a drop in the ocean.

Oh definitely! The reason on why most cryptocurrency miners choose a designated location for their mining is due to the amount of energy used during the entire process. Countries who have a tropical climate are at a disadvantage, as the amount of energy would increase thus more cost in during the process of mining.
The pollution it creates not only contribute to the climate but also to the aggregate pollution as well.

This is also the reason on why most equipment in the mining have been thrown-out and rarely do you see them recycle by other users and miners.

The energy used in Bitcoin mining is largely renewable and green -- solar, hydro, wind. Solar and wind are becoming the cheapest forms of electricity, so this trend will only continue. See here: Bitcoin mining is greener than most large-scale industries: report (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bitcoin-mining-is-greener-that-most-large-scale-industries-report-2018-11-30)

Regarding coal-fired and other fossil fuel electricity, Bitcoin miners also utilize already-generated electricity that would otherwise be wasted by grid inefficiencies. In other words, a non-zero portion of the hash rate isn't really adding to electricity consumption. It's taking excess electricity that's already been generated. This is called "load balancing." Some people predict that large-scale Bitcoin miners will increasingly strike up load balancing agreements with power generators (https://www.coindesk.com/ftc-manual-mining-bitcoin-balancing-act) because it's a mutually beneficial arrangement.

It doesn't matter if its generated by renewable energy or not. In countries like China, a lot of the farms uses renewable energy. It is mostly due to their proximity to such facilities. However, most parts of the countries are still largely dependent on coal as a method of producing electricity. The energy that was utilised could very well be used to supply to others and the dependence on coal would be much lower. Until the whole world is using renewable energy, Bitcoin would still have some contributions to the pollution, albeit indirectly.

Its important to note that due to the nature of ASICs, it is difficult to repurpose them for anything else. This makes it more economical to dispose them directly as opposed to recycling them. It thus contribute to the problem of e-waste.

Considering electricity is used for mining and producing bitcoin takes time.

Time makes more pollution due to energy convertion into electricity so yes we can say it produces more.

But in case there's a small window and possibility to make it so the base source for that electricty comes from a clean source,
then for sure it would be more clean and a reliable solution for mining thus not poluting.

For that to happen every material being used for mining would have to come from a clean source which isn't possible currently.

Everything that we do somehow contribute to pollution so bitcoin mining should not be given an isolated case. Banks and other commercial institutions largely contribute to this pollution issue as well. But I believe with crypto usage, we somehow reduce the pollution that it create along the way. Just take for example, if you want to convert your crypto to fiat, you only need few transactions and you're good to go. Less paper trail, less docs, less incurred waste, less time consumed. So that alone will give you an idea how crypto can reduce the waste that we are generating by dealing with crypto. And with the miners on the works, we will incur even less time for our crypto transactions. Less energy is being utilized eventually.

This has been discussed so many times in this community:

Is Bitcoin Mining Really Causing Environmental Damage? Maybe not that much... (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4689016.0)
Power consumption of Bitcoin mining (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3930494.0)
Reports of bitcoin environmental damage are garbage (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5104483.0)
Fake News Of The Day: "Bitcoin Mining Is A Growing Environmental Threat" (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4809404.0)
Bitcoin is Bad for the environment, taking the worlds energy - yes? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1514871.0)
Can actually Bitcoin be good for the environment? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2852092.0)

So I don't know if we really need another thread about that so called effects of bitcoin mining to the environment, just saying.

Mining is based on electricity consumption. That is why there are probably no alternatives

Exactly. It is not even sure it will remain profitable to mine 10 more years, in my opinion it will not. Large mining operations will come to an end, those that remain will be those with free energy, or those few that don't care to spend more to mine.

While bitcoin price will keep climbing, this is not in sync with mining profitability. In fact you can see for yourself how mining gradually becomes less and less profitable, and with every halving this becomes more and more so.

The greener solution is, the market. Just wait it out, and you'll see for yourself. All those miners you see struggling to pay bills, they will all go. Only those that don't care about "the bill" will remain.

Psh, why being botherd by the little damage contributed by the mining machines if millions of automobiles and hundreds of industrial plants already did a lot. If we compare the damage done by both parties, crypto mining is not so significant. So instead of focusing on it, we should regulate more the use of bigger engines in our industry.

I guess the only thing we could do to repair or to slow down what we've done is to use greener ways — renewable energy; or invent more efficient but less power consuming mining rigs in the future :). And if someone insist that using fiat is cleaner then he should think twice, think all of the trees it consumed. Guess who is cleaner now ::).

Not, that is what is going to change the climate issue, if people are renewable energy sources, they can use as much as they want. Personally, solar is becoming extremely useful and cheap, in my own country, the government gives out grants to people who want to buy solar panels, and they make back their money in cheaper electricity very quickly.

Isn't this the same issue with a lot of computers? There are actually a lot of people who run computer recycling plants, and most of it comes down to plastic, and that's the main problem with computers and other stuff since it's extremely hard to dispose of them.

Compared to a global scale, it's not that much. In addition, ASICs are getting more energy efficient over time. Technological advancements happen as time pass by and energy consumption would lessen as these hardwares would require less energy to produce the same, if not better performance than previous chips.

Banking do use energy too, from facilities, establishments and such. It's quite comparable but the thing is cryptocurrency does not need much miscellaneous facilities.

I don't think so, Cryptocurrency mining is not producing any harmful thing to the environment so far, If you compare with other economic activities then you see a lot of electricity wastage, but many cryptocurrency miners are using alternative electricity so it doesn't bring anything negative to the environment, it's very clear that cryptocurrency mining is not producing any gases like our vehicles, industrial factory and so on, so it's safe for our environment. most important thing is that electricity was invented for human daily life so using in cryptocurrency mining is not any harm from my opinion.

Firstly, most crypto miners are typically in locations with extremely cheap energy, due to an energy surplus. this means that if Crypto miners were not using the energy, it would go to waste anyways. Secondly Let's see what is the energy use of the banking system with all it's servers and offices everywhere full of client computers, ATM's, service points where the lights always stay on transportation of cash, etc. I am sure it is very larger than Crypto mining. Third with migrating to a PoS or other protocol you can get less than 1% of the energy use compared to current consumption of crypto mining.

The solution is to wait for more sophisticated and economical technology with electric power sources so that it can reduce pollution because as we know it is not possible to replace the power source to other power sources because every electronic must use electricity to run

There is no question that since Bitcoin mining is requiring a lot of energy, there will always be carbon footprint involved. However, we have to understand that  all industries are contributing to the build-up of carbon monoxide and other pollutants in the environment. Maybe what we really need is a better mining technology that is requiring less power so that once and for all we can get away from the tag of not being pro-environment. We need a greener approach to this industry and I am hoping that can be coming soon.

In one way it consumes more electricity for the entire network function without flaw. The electricity consumed and the output it provides is more effective compared with the usage of electricity consumed on various other needs to perform similar task. The task can be of transactions, other data storage and so on.

When it comes to pollution what bitcoin mining causes is very simple, maybe in future when there is mass usage compared to the present there might be drastic increase. Most of the mining firms are kept in location where there is not much of energy required to provide cooling. This way heat too isn't left to the environment, so the global pollution is rising of various other factors and not because of mining.

Mining is harmful to the environment, it is inevitable. However, there are many similar things in the world that consume electricity.

I do not think it is polluted because currently the countries participating in crypto mining have been proactive in energy resources for crypto mining.  Mining cryptocurrencies with computer power consumes a lot of electrical energy and emits a lot of heat into the environment, but not much compared to engines of vehicles or factories.  Crypto mining generates significant profits.  Bitcoin mining companies have used solar energy, wind power ... to replace electricity from hydroelectricity.  In addition, the amount of heat they treat very well does not cause heat to affect the environment.  It is unreasonable to consider Bitcoin mining to adversely affect the environment as the level of impact is very low.

now bitcoin or other cryptocurrency miners continue to grow which makes it possible to provide higher electricity, we are certainly very worried that there will be a world electricity crisis, and of course cryptocurrency mining can cause environmental damage (pollution) the greenhouse effect, imagine if in the future miners bitcoin in the future will establish a bigger company that needs more electricity.

so the miners now really need a solution to tackle world pollution even further.

Here you need to make decisions that can neutralize the harmful effects of electricity. This is already a worldwide problem, mining is only a way of consuming electricity.

It is not the hydroelectricity that causes more pollution to the environment but the people who are utilizing the coal to produce electricity If we are to burn fossil fuels, it will produce gasses that are harmful to our environment, and the solution is to use solar, wind and hydroelectric power plan some uses turbines, to generate electricity. But the issue is that, producing electricity is not enough with these resources, they still utilize coals. In cryptocurrency mining facilities, most aren't having their own generating electricity infrastructure, they are still paying electricity to local companies. That is why, we cannot blame cryptocurrency minings.

That is far from a given. Renewable sources are rapidly expanding, which will bring the cost of electricty down in the long term. Many countries are passing laws requiring all new buildings to have solar panels or other ways of producing green energy. If a mining farm is powered directly form solar panels or similar, then the price of electricty is irrelevant since the miner is producing their own.

A higher hashrate confers more security on the bitcoin network.

As far as I have read crypto mining makes its "contribution" to the carbon footprint of humanity on the planet, but many of the farms out there mostly use green energy because it's more cost effective in some cases and they also protect the environment. But the ones who largely use energy from fossil combustibles should offset their carbon footprint by buying international carbon credits. I believe Zero Carbon Project offer a service like that where you can buy credits with BTC or something like that.

It does need a lot of electricity but who doesn't?
We are part of that pollution.
How about A/C the whole day? Heaters? Those kind of electric machines does need a lot of electricity to and bitcoin mining is not even near it.
Have you also thought about infrastructure which is consuming electricity 24/7?

Will there be a big change in our environment if the mining of bitcoin is suddenly stopped? I don't think so. It will be worst in the future and not just because of mining bitcoin. Us!

I think every businesses now uses electric energy. Its so hard to live now without electricity. And the other addition is the internet connection. Its not necessity for others but mostly all are dependent of these two. Aside from the basic needs food, shelter and clothing. Today, it needs the two (electricity and internet) to earn living for us to sustain and pay our bills. Well, crypto currency mining is just part of the many who uses electric energy. But for me, pollution is something more serious in seas and other natural resources.

Not only mining causes pollution, but yes, it is also one of the contributors of pollution, and cleaning pollution should be everyone's responsibility not only me, not only you but we should be all take responsibility of it as our children and grandchildren will suffer if we will not take care of our surroundings, and remember that nowadays the resources are becoming too expensive because of lots of demand but the supply is decreasing.

this section your posting is for bitcoin discusion but i can see that you are talking about mining .  i think this thread fits better on the mining board located on here  >>> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=14.0  .  now to the question that if  cryptocurrency mining produce more pollution? i would say no . no because mining can be done on portable devices like phone and laptop or on mid heavy devices like pc but all of these are indorse and cant contribute to the existing polution that we experience right  now  .

I don't think crypto mining produce more pollution in the environment. It's always up to the miner and what kind of 1st energy they're using. I meant mining isn't too profitable where the electricity is too expensive like in some countries, and it's really poluate when we're using fossil fuel as a source of electrical energy. In the other part, Miners can also use renewable energy which it have not any impact of pollution to the environment as well as unlimited but it requires an expensive diapositive to get it. Like solar energy require PV systems or Wind energy require Aerogenerators etc..

We cannot erase the fact that bitcoin mining really consumes a lot of electricity. And obviously, it affects our environment. Yes, bitcoin mining contributes a portion regarding pollution and energy consumption. It's normal for every household to consume electricity, especially big businesses who also consume a lot of electricity every day. It's already a part of them to function every day. Same goes for mining bitcoin, it is necessary. Though others are looking for an alternative to reduce energy consumption.

With every halving the power consumption more or less halves also as the weakest miners have to shut down for economic reasons.

Do troll posts on the internet produce a lot pollution?

Mining crypto is not a "mandatory" activity. People do it because profits. They will tend to go with the most hash power for the least amount of electricity used, lowest cost, and possibly the greenest renewable type (if it also costs less).

Compared to fiat institutions that need large buildings, ... I'd say the carbon footprint of bitcoin (and all other crypto) mining is relatively smaller.

Only a few use green energy, most farms use electricity from power plants, even require the level of continuous power supply and optimization as possible to achieve the best results in mining and this is certainly a part of environmental pollution but the ratio is probably negligible compared to the rest of the world. Because in modern life, industries, electricity and demand are too high in life, all of which lead to environmental pollution, Bitcoin and crypto mining more or less, the level of pollution remains the same, can not change more actively.

If you wanna look at it from an ecological perspective, the percentage of carbon dioxide produced by the power used by bitcoin miners around the world is nearly insignificant compared to what other day to day lives activities produce, so at least we don't have to worry about that now, besides the number of people who are mining bitcoin on a large scale bases is not that high so that it significant, and also many mining companies have started to utilize solar and other clean power methods for their mining, not because they care about the environment but it is profitable on the long term.

Which is why most bank statements are now digitalised. There is no doubt that there are various tangible advantages that banks have over Bitcoin but with respect to the transaction volume verses the amount of pollution produced, traditional methods still champions crypto in this aspect.

Not exactly. R-waste is a big problem in general but the fact that ASICs can only do one task makes it extremely inflexible and makes them obsolete faster. Farm's do not usually try to recycle them due to their high cost.

some mining company is starting to use renewal like solar, wind and many more
it might add pollution due to a large amount of electricity consumption
but like any other establishment that uses electricity it just same in mining, it is just additional
maybe the best solution is to donate some dollars for trees when price of bitcoin rise and after we earn some profit to lessen pollution.