[2018-01-29] IMF’s Lagarde Says Bitcoin Mining Consumes Too Much Electricity

[cybersofts]

IMF’s Lagarde Says That Bitcoin Mining Consumes Too Much Electricity




Bitcoin mining is too energy intensive — that’s the message that International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde has for advocates of the flagship cryptocurrency.


Bitcoin Mining Too Energy Intensive: IMF Director Lagarde

Lagarde, who was speaking from Davos at the World Economic Forum, said that Bitcoin mining is an “energy angry” industry, a factor that the IMF finds concerning.

    “The Bitcoins mining, which is this accelerated and augmented use of computers to actually determine the value and incentive the functioning of the mechanism, is energy angry,” Lagarde said in Bloomberg TV interview. “And we figure that in 2018 if it continues that system will actually consume as much electricity as Argentina.”

According to Bloomberg, the Bitcoin mining industry’s collective power consumption tripled in 2017, reaching a peak daily usage of 43 GWh in December.





Many analysts and environmentalists have sounded the alarm on the industry’s power usage, and Lagarde said that it has turned in to a “big concern” given that the world is already battle climate change.

“In times of climate change and when we look at how much coal is being used in some Chinese provinces to actually mine Bitcoin it’s a big concern,” she concluded.

However, despite such clarion calls, other analysts have said that the industry’s energy consumption has been overblown. Last week, a Credit Suisse report said that although miners’ electricity usage will increase as long as the practice remains profitable, actual projections are a “far cry from the power and environmental Armageddon that some have feared.”


Blockchain ‘Fascinating,’ But Bitcoin Has a ‘Dark Side’

But, as she has on many occasions, Lagarde sought to separate the “technology that is underneath” cryptocurrency from Bitcoin itself. This technology, she has said in the past, will bring “massive disruptions,” a prediction she reiterated in the present interview.

   “What is fascinating about [cryptocurrencies] is the technology that is underneath, this distributed ledger technology that guarantees identification, trustability, authentication of transactions, without intermediation, I think that was the dream of the original Bitcoin inventors,” she said, perhaps without knowledge of Bitcoin’s genesis block.

Lagarde noted that a myriad of central banks have begun to experiment with how to integrate distributed ledger technology (DLT) into their own operations, without sacrificing the authority to control and issue new units of currency.

Public cryptocurrencies, however, have another dark side beyond their massive energy consumption, Lagarde claimed.

“The anonymity of it is likely to facilitate money laundering, dark money moving around, and things that no one is happy about, if we are looking for financial stability and transparency of financial transactions, so that’s the dark side,” she said.

In response to this threat, the IMF recently called for international collaboration on regulating cryptocurrencies, joining similar entreaties from financial regulators in a variety of G20 nations.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/imfs-lagarde-says-bitcoin-mining-consumes-much-electricity/

[Proton2233]

Anyone interested in her opinion? The IMF was created in order to through the credits to completely subjugate poor countries. Rich countries which are the main donors, the IMF destroying thus its potential competitors. Cryptocurrency could attract investment in the country without the use of IMF loans. Therefore, they will not support cryptocurrencies.

[Harlot]

We can say the same thing to factories of large businesses earning a lot of our money just for their personal gain. Mining cryptocurrency is really not the problem here, if Lagarde really wants to solve something she should strive to push renewable energy which is for the betterment of the whole world. Only a few individuals have a mining farm and I don't think it is contributing to something bad compared to the pollution and energy waste being created by business moguls. Really bad to see someone who has high position thinking badly about Crypto Mining, she should have look at the bigger picture in the first place if she really care about saving the environment.

[Xavofat]

Lagarde is a convicted criminal. 

For her opinion to be worth anything, it has to contain original and useful information.  It doesn't matter that she specifically thinks that, because if anything her reputation is lower than a random person on the street - therefore only the content of what she says matters.

Since she's hardly said anything useful, the whole article seems pointless.

[figmentofmyass]

i’ve been expecting attacks from the environmentalist angle for a while. when compared to the energy consumption of the banking and coin minting industries, the argument is bullshit. someday, bitcoin mining might compare, but by then i think we’ll have lots of data to argue that the energy consumption is justified.

Anyone interested in her opinion? The IMF was created in order to through the credits to completely subjugate poor countries. Rich countries which are the main donors, the IMF destroying thus its potential competitors. Cryptocurrency could attract investment in the country without the use of IMF loans. Therefore, they will not support cryptocurrencies.

true, but it’s in the interest of major global powers (and their proxies like the IMF) to push whatever propaganda they think can keep their power in place. unfortunately, the word of the IMF probably carries more weight than we’d like to think.

[J. Cooper]

Bitcoin's proof of work mining system isn't good for the environment and we know that but it's extremely unfair to use that against bitcoin because there's a lot more electricity pollution on a much larger scale by bigger government backed corporations. So even if bitcoin would become proof of stake it won't cancel out all the environmental problems.

[Ouissem]

Every time I hear a stupid comment by Christine Lagarde, I have this music in my head : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkTym_qdvds

[1Referee]

How about Shell, the oil and gas giant with its headquarter in Europe? Shell is destroying and poisoning large parts of Nigeria with oil leaks and whatnot. People get sick and die there on a daily basis by drinking water that most people in well developed economies can't even take a tiny sip of without going fully KO. It has been going on for years and years, and nothing has been done to prevent it, and they worry about Bitcoin consuming too much Electricity? Hmm, oh wait, Shell brings in billions and billions every year, and Bitcoin doesn't, which is why the IMF, the baboon corporation of the western world, is following this route. Largarde is leading a criminal organisation, which is not only how people here think, but also the average joes.