Bitcoin Has Less Environmental Impact Than Fiat Currencies

[alyssa85]

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-has-less-environmental-impact-than-fiat-currencies

The risks of environmental impact because of Bitcoin mining have been widely touted, but a recent report indicates that the actual damage from Bitcoin mining may well be far less than that associated with fiat currencies and other industries.

Data centers, gold mining and cash production all consume substantially more energy than Bitcoin mining.

The report indicates that the annual consumption of power from Bitcoin mining is 8.27 terawatt-hours per year, more than Ireland and other small nations. Nevertheless, this number is actually only an eighth of what data centers in the US consume annually, and the global production of fiat currencies stands at 11 terawatt-hours per year.

Gold mining burns a staggering 132 terawatt-hours per year. What’s more, these numbers don’t even include the massive amount spent on vaults, banks, security systems and more to keep the physical cash and precious metal safe.

[xdrpx]

That's some good information on power consumption, but comparing 11 to 8 terawatt-hours per year, it's a small percentage different. There's not as much Bitcoin in circulation in terms of market capital (even the market cap figures aren't as accurate since there's more risk of losing Bitcoin if you lose data or lose your private keys) as compared to USD fiat's that are printed (Although the article speaks about the global fiat currency production which would again palce the global fiat market cap much much higher). There's probably trillions of USD printed and the energy use hence is comparatively lesser compared to Bitcoins. Also, the article mentions about gold, but that isn't fiat. I think the Proof of Work algorithm was meant to make use of more power, unless until more efficient (less power consuming) mining hardwares are being manufactured and that miners start using them.

[squatz1]

I can't even come close to seeing this as being true, the amount of energy consumption that we all must be using when it comes to mining Bitcoin has got to be an insane amount -- of course it's not close to FIAT currencies as they're the ones which are being used EVERYDAY by EVERYBODY in the world. But do think about the issues that would be faced if we were the main and only currency, of course we'd have an insane amount of issues too when it comes to enviromental impact.

Gotta think about it like that bud.