Bitcoin has been called virtual gold, in part because it is created in a process that insiders call mining. Depending on how the electricity used for mining is generated, the virtual currency can have a very real impact by adding pollutants into the air and contributing to global warming..
Mining involves "adding value by dedicating computational resources to verify transactions in a huge public ledger called a 'blockchain'," explained Julian Oliver, a New Zealander who uses wind power to mine ZCash — a bitcoin cousin. Specialist studies estimate the total annual energy output of the hundreds of thousands of dedicated mining machines worldwide at 35 terawatt hours, according to the Digiconomist website — some 25 percent up on last year..
But focusing on the electricity consumption of cryptocurrency mining "ought not to overshadow pre-existing environmental costs of the traditional financial system," said Oliver, as "cash needs to be printed and transported and banks run off the back of data centres.". Nadine Damblon, chief executive of HydroMiner, which uses hydroelectric power to mine in the Austrian Alps, said there is a need for greater use of renewables in the industry as Asian miners often rely on coal-generated electricity..
The push for scale to save on energy costs and go green also risks pushing bitcoin against its libertarian, or even anarchist, founding philosophy. The push for scale "would concentrate number-crunching power in the hands of the richest or throw into question bitcoin's (decentralised) philosophy," said Teunis Brosens, a senior economist with ING bank..
http://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/bitcoin-is-considered-as-virtual-gold-but-mining-it-contributes-to-the-global-warming-4274621.html
