Sustainability of cryptocurrencies?

[20kevin20]

I believe that mining bitcoins produces no harm in the environment because there is no chemicals mix , no land drills ! no forest cuts and etc , bitcoin mining just need a machine and electricity and it can survive for itself ! Bitcoin mining consumes a lot electrcity same as hotels and other high class facilities but that doesnt mean it ruining the environment ! it was just an electricity its is not a factory or chemicals !

A Bitcoin mining farm probably consumes way more than a hotel.. but mining doesn't really "help" the global warming. We're doing many other different things that are really harming the world and warming the weather up, and we're concerned about a currency that's using just electricity? I don't think it is disastrous - then nobody would have electricity at their homes. Imagine all the electricity around the world being used summed up, THAT might be a problem. Not a few computers running.

[Ravion]

I believe that mining bitcoins produces no harm in the environment because there is no chemicals mix , no land drills ! no forest cuts and etc , bitcoin mining just need a machine and electricity and it can survive for itself ! Bitcoin mining consumes a lot electrcity same as hotels and other high class facilities but that doesnt mean it ruining the environment ! it was just an electricity its is not a factory or chemicals !

A Bitcoin mining farm probably consumes way more than a hotel.. but mining doesn't really "help" the global warming. We're doing many other different things that are really harming the world and warming the weather up, and we're concerned about a currency that's using just electricity? I don't think it is disastrous - then nobody would have electricity at their homes. Imagine all the electricity around the world being used summed up, THAT might be a problem. Not a few computers running.

It's true that Bitcoin doesn't directly create pollution like toxic chemicals, but the energy needed for mining means that coal and oil are getting used up during the process. It would be great if mining used clean energy sources. This, in addition to all the other advantages it provides, would create the possibility of Bitcoin becoming the payment system of a green economy. 

[bob123]

I believe that mining bitcoins produces no harm in the environment because there is no chemicals mix , no land drills ! no forest cuts and etc , bitcoin mining just need a machine and electricity and it can survive for itself ! Bitcoin mining consumes a lot electrcity same as hotels and other high class facilities but that doesnt mean it ruining the environment ! it was just an electricity its is not a factory or chemicals !

A Bitcoin mining farm probably consumes way more than a hotel.. but mining doesn't really "help" the global warming. We're doing many other different things that are really harming the world and warming the weather up, and we're concerned about a currency that's using just electricity? I don't think it is disastrous - then nobody would have electricity at their homes. Imagine all the electricity around the world being used summed up, THAT might be a problem. Not a few computers running.

It's true that Bitcoin doesn't directly create pollution like toxic chemicals, but the energy needed for mining means that coal and oil are getting used up during the process. It would be great if mining used clean energy sources. This, in addition to all the other advantages it provides, would create the possibility of Bitcoin becoming the payment system of a green economy. 

This actually.. will never happen.. Because miners wan't to make money.. they dont want to save the planet...
And since "green electricity" is way more expensive than just coal or atom (especially in e.g. China, without any regulations).. this is a nice idea..
but unfortunately will never happen 

[CraigWrightBTC]

Has anyone done any serious studies on electricity consumption due to cryptocurrency related activities like mining? Possibly with comparison between different currencies and feasibility of maintaining such consumption? Is there an argument to be made for or against them in the context of global warming?

Well if you are talking about mining activity, is it profitable or not will depend on the price of coins be mined,
so we can be comparation the coins will be mined with other coins which are most profitable.
There are impact with global warming related activity mining but there are not banning activity mining all of countries.

[Amph]

chinese big farm use electricity that derivate from green source like hydro power plan, therefore they don't need themselves to run with green energy and it doesn't make sense anyway

How do you know that?

As far as I know, there are not many hydroelectric power stations in China (even despite the Three Gorges Dam being the largest power station in the world). According to this Wiki article, 73% of Chinese electricity production in 2014 came from burning coal. But coal-fired power stations are one of the most polluting electricity generating plants out there (even without taking into account the purported global warming) since coal is radioactive on its own

there was a documentary on youtube where a big farm wa talking about how they are near a big dam and can have a better contract than other place, with very cheap electricity

obviously not all of them use green energy but some yes, and remember that not all chinese farm are in china, they have different dislocation

[Doms]

I believe that mining bitcoins produces no harm in the environment because there is no chemicals mix , no land drills ! no forest cuts and etc , bitcoin mining just need a machine and electricity and it can survive for itself ! Bitcoin mining consumes a lot electrcity same as hotels and other high class facilities but that doesnt mean it ruining the environment ! it was just an electricity its is not a factory or chemicals !

A Bitcoin mining farm probably consumes way more than a hotel.. but mining doesn't really "help" the global warming. We're doing many other different things that are really harming the world and warming the weather up, and we're concerned about a currency that's using just electricity? I don't think it is disastrous - then nobody would have electricity at their homes. Imagine all the electricity around the world being used summed up, THAT might be a problem. Not a few computers running.

It's true that Bitcoin doesn't directly create pollution like toxic chemicals, but the energy needed for mining means that coal and oil are getting used up during the process. It would be great if mining used clean energy sources. This, in addition to all the other advantages it provides, would create the possibility of Bitcoin becoming the payment system of a green economy. 

Reminds me of an article I read a couple of weeks ago regarding certain Venezuelan miners who used government subsidized electricity illegally. A big part of Venezuela’s electricity is being paid by the government, so naturally some took advantage of the rates, but eventually got arrested. All these electricity being consumed by these high powered computers are going to add up to the ever increasing demand for power which in turn makes the price of electricity even more expensive.

[NorrisK]

I believe that mining bitcoins produces no harm in the environment because there is no chemicals mix , no land drills ! no forest cuts and etc , bitcoin mining just need a machine and electricity and it can survive for itself ! Bitcoin mining consumes a lot electrcity same as hotels and other high class facilities but that doesnt mean it ruining the environment ! it was just an electricity its is not a factory or chemicals !

A Bitcoin mining farm probably consumes way more than a hotel.. but mining doesn't really "help" the global warming. We're doing many other different things that are really harming the world and warming the weather up, and we're concerned about a currency that's using just electricity? I don't think it is disastrous - then nobody would have electricity at their homes. Imagine all the electricity around the world being used summed up, THAT might be a problem. Not a few computers running.

It's true that Bitcoin doesn't directly create pollution like toxic chemicals, but the energy needed for mining means that coal and oil are getting used up during the process. It would be great if mining used clean energy sources. This, in addition to all the other advantages it provides, would create the possibility of Bitcoin becoming the payment system of a green economy. 

Reminds me of an article I read a couple of weeks ago regarding certain Venezuelan miners who used government subsidized electricity illegally. A big part of Venezuela’s electricity is being paid by the government, so naturally some took advantage of the rates, but eventually got arrested. All these electricity being consumed by these high powered computers are going to add up to the ever increasing demand for power which in turn makes the price of electricity even more expensive.

The growing need for power (not only from bitcoin ofcourse) is actually a stimulation to study new and more durable ways to generate power. Without consumption, this research would not be possible, as other alternatives would be cheaper.

Electricity prices are not going to be more expensive because it is used more, instead, new methods of generating power (as you now see with windmills, solar power, water power, etc) are going to be increasingly used to offset this.

[requester]

as you had mentioned that to make bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies it requires lot of electricity and other resources so you are right at a point that it really consumes lot of resource and we should care to minimize the consumption by implementing other method of mining and previously i thought its a good deed but now i realize the its against our motive that is 'go green'

[digaran]

Few months ago I asked similar questions but my post was deleted but now I understand that in order for bitcoin price to rise we need to obtain them by doing the hard work which is mining and consuming electricity, all the heat generated by miners is nothing compare to what countries are doing.

[doomistake]

Has anyone done any serious studies on electricity consumption due to cryptocurrency related activities like mining? Possibly with comparison between different currencies and feasibility of maintaining such consumption? Is there an argument to be made for or against them in the context of global warming?

Bitcoin Mining requires really a HUGE amount of electricity(because your PC is going to work for 24/7), time, and expensive hardware, and yes, Electrical consumption causes global warming, because of its process on how we get the electricity, technically, in order to produce electricity, we need so many processes like using a machine or a generator to produce electricity, so this generators requires something to run. For example is coal and oil, and this two materials will emits a large smoke from the machine and this will cause Global Warming to us.

But since that we need electricity on our everyday lives, the only thing that we can do is to have self-discipline on how we are using electricity, and we can't avoid to have Global Warming here in our earth by just only a few of us that will stop doing things that causes Global Warming. It should all of us, all around the world, and invent something that will erase this global Warming here in this planet.

[lionheart78]

Has anyone done any serious studies on electricity consumption due to cryptocurrency related activities like mining? Possibly with comparison between different currencies and feasibility of maintaining such consumption? Is there an argument to be made for or against them in the context of global warming?

Electricity consumption has nothing to do with the global warming.Electricity production creates the global warming.If we produce electricity with green techonologies ,the consumption of such energy won`t be a problem.
Anyway,after 21M bitcoins the mining will stop and this issue will disappear.

Nope, mining won't stop because mining is needed to push blocks for the confirmation of transaction.  After the last halving one century from now, the block reward will be zero and the only reward for miners will be the transaction fee that was speculated to be enough because of the global adoption and relative price of Bitcoin that time.

[deisik]

I believe that mining bitcoins produces no harm in the environment because there is no chemicals mix , no land drills ! no forest cuts and etc , bitcoin mining just need a machine and electricity and it can survive for itself ! Bitcoin mining consumes a lot electrcity same as hotels and other high class facilities but that doesnt mean it ruining the environment ! it was just an electricity its is not a factory or chemicals !

A Bitcoin mining farm probably consumes way more than a hotel.. but mining doesn't really "help" the global warming. We're doing many other different things that are really harming the world and warming the weather up, and we're concerned about a currency that's using just electricity? I don't think it is disastrous - then nobody would have electricity at their homes. Imagine all the electricity around the world being used summed up, THAT might be a problem. Not a few computers running.

It's true that Bitcoin doesn't directly create pollution like toxic chemicals, but the energy needed for mining means that coal and oil are getting used up during the process. It would be great if mining used clean energy sources. This, in addition to all the other advantages it provides, would create the possibility of Bitcoin becoming the payment system of a green economy

This actually.. will never happen.. Because miners wan't to make money.. they dont want to save the planet...
And since "green electricity" is way more expensive than just coal or atom (especially in e.g. China, without any regulations).. this is a nice idea..
but unfortunately will never happen 

I don't really think that miners have much choice in this respect

They are likely using electricity which they have access to, so it is not up to them to decide but electricity suppliers. If given such a choice, they might have actually chosen to use greener sources (not all of them, of course), but in most case they don't have this choice. They plug in their equipment into an already existing power grid and that's basically all. Regarding electricity costs, these depend not only on specific source as such but also on a lot of other factors, e.g. distance

[Michel de Montaigne]

Bitcoin mining was completely digital it doesn't give any bad impact to the environment ! If electricity is not a problem at all because there is too many way to gain electricity eitheir natiral or artificial !There is natural way of having an electricity either via solar or wind power , mining bitcoin has no bad effect in the environment unlike mining a gold which involves lot of risk

We need to invest to generate electricity using alternative energy sources. So you have to pay a lot of money at the beginning to get the electricity that a good mining facility needs.

Of course it may make sense to think about a long term investment.