Is Bitcoin Mining Really Causing Environmental Damage? Maybe not that much...

[Salty yor]

From my point of view Bitcoins are contributing to the warming of the atmosphere without providing a significant public benefit in return. Some Bitcoin enthusiasts claim that it will eventually become a mainstream currency, and that the cryptogovernance system upon which it’s built could actually help the environment.

[pendong101]

I think not really you're just consuming a lot of electricity that you used too, but nothing much compare to mining of minerals

[pedropenduko001]

Yeah i think so because it uses a lot of electricity but i think it doesn't give that much damage though

[Baimovic]

the scarcity of bitcoins is a problem to be solved, because the bitcoin scarcity makes a miner difficult to solve cryptographic puzzles, and electricity consumption becomes expensive.

so I think there are many other alternatives we can do to save electricity, such as hydro mining, mine using waste power, or solar power, or steam power.

[Rath_]

 Mining may actually present a serious problem as far as you electric bill is concerned, but other than that, this environmental threat seems to be more or so based on paranoia. I mean, let's be logical for a second and think, how many people are actually mining,  let alone equipped to do so?  I can see if every house on the block had a rig setup, but where talking bout small number of people compared to those who don't mine.

As you mentioned, mining consumes a lot of energy. Large mining farms are usually located in countries with excess electricity. Mining rigs are not the only machines which "waste" electricity. They need a proper cooling. However, I have seen a few startups which are trying to make use of the heat which is generated during the process of mining. Many households would be actually able to cover the cost of electricity thanks to the earnings from mining. Once electricity becomes more expensive all around the world, mining farms owners will have to invest in renewable energy.

[kingofhell9008]

I don't think that bitcoin mining causing a huge environmental damage. But I guess there occur a little by using a concidarable number of electricity. I thinik Environmental damage is occuring by many other related aspects.

[Kakmakr]

What is more Environmentally unfriendly? Bitcoin mined from unsustainable energy or copper, nickel and zinc mines that provides these metals to be used in minting coins for the fiat system? Put that into your pipe and smoke that....  

We have not even touched on the Cotton and Paper that are used to print notes.    {How much water is wasted in this process?} Oh, before I forget, the UK are printing plastic notes now.

Let's rather look at the bigger picture, before we get the pitchforks out to attack Bitcoin again.  

[mazdafunsun]

If that energy wouldn't be used for bitcoin mining it would be used for another purpose that right now is using coal energy. Pretty simple. Let's say that all the energy from the three gorges dam is going to be used for bitcoin mining, what are the people that currently are using that energy going to do? Turn to coal!!!!

you are right the OPs statement is not valid if the industry is using already exisitng energy infrastructure.
However if the minig rigs are using newly built alternative energy source or creating demand for electricity which is filled by some alternative energy resources, it is green mining. In order to understand what is the real impact of minig , we would need more data and much wider and deeper analysis of energy markets.

There also is topic of blockchain vs fiat and there is room for discusiion if blockchain is more enviromently demaging that FIAT system.

[audaciousbeing]

The article is really self explanatory in the support of bitcoin mining in that part of the world because its really not affecting anything and that is a cogent reason why I think the Chinese government have not pull the plug on mining activities despite their negative stance against bitcoin and crypto activities. To me, its a win-win to them because the facility that a whole lot of money was spent to bring into existence is now being wasted away but some facilities are therefore making use of it at the same time making money out of it to pay taxes to government.

I also don't think the banks are damaging the environment because they don't engage in manufacturing activities or exploring activities that we see in companies in that sector do to the environment.

[KevinRobertson]

I don't think that it is causing environmental  damage as by doing this air is not being polluted.Banks have a big part for spreading this type of news. However a large amount of energy consumption needed for bitcoin mining.

[JasonRosado]

All your points are logical enough. I totally agree with you. We can utilize the unused hydro energy for mining Bitcoins and that won’t do any harm to the environment. Moreover, we should look for another alternative way in which there will be no harm to the environment and we can still utilize the unused hydro energy.

[JohnDcosta]

I do not think so. Actually we are now living in the era of technology and technology is nothing without electricity. So if electricity consumption is bad then we will have to stop using technology. Bitcoin is consuming electricity but it is also giving benefits to the society also. It is also helping to establishing energy project also.

[Tmcrypto]

Not, really. BTC is all done in an electronic manner. The things are done on devices which does not emit any harmful substances. The only downturn is, it uses up a lot of energy. That is the only downside. Apart from that, it is not that harmful for the environment.

[mrcash02]

The Chinese rivers help a Filipino immigrant in USA to send his payroll to his relatives in the Philippines for cents of a dollar, rather than for a 40% commission fee via Western Union.

Hmmm... I think it gives an idea of who is disturbed about Bitcoin's potential and its positive impact on the world. Ecological excuses are a good strategy when you want to weak an opponent. Always suspect exaggerated predictions told by ecology experts as they were absolut truths.

Bitcoin isn't the first victim of the environmental activists and it won't be the last...

[tiurminator]

Well I think so.  My experience to synchronize the bitcoin core take about 6 weeks almost nonstop to finish.  After that it takes another several hours to resync if I quit the app for a day. 

[elwiswoodie]

I don't think that bitcoin mining causing a huge environmental damage. But I guess there occur a little by using a concidarable number of electricity. I thinik Environmental damage is occuring by many other related aspects.

because mining tools usually use high-level VGA, then I think that makes dangerous mining equipment is the stability of the power supply
If you use a hydroelectric power station, you should think hard to keep power steady in your supply of VGA and RIG mining

[iotarocket]

One possible solution is for nations to use more renewable energy for mining. I think most sensible people realize that it's not practical for cryprocurrencies to rely on proof of work mining, so the shift to proof of stake by some coins should alleviate some of the energy consumption.

[jcojci]

I don't think bitcoin mining is causing any environmental damage. Though, the over use and over heat of electricity can cause domestic damage if not carefully managed. Some miners carelessness have caused so much damages to private and public properties.We have heard news on how buildings caught fire because some restless minners didn't cool their machines enough.

yes, I agree with you. the bitcoin mining uses electricity and not causing environmental damage. maybe there will be a big consumption of electricity that will be used for bitcoin mining. and I think the bitcoin mining company will solve this problem as the electricity is not the only use for mining only but also use for the humankind.

[Pursuer]

all this energy  drama has been mostly an attack against bitcoin to indirectly imply that "bitcoin is a waste of energy" and with that imply that "bitcoin shouldn't exist". but the thing is they are just spreading FUD to make people believe that bitcoin is not providing any utilities. OP had a good point, bitcoin is a 24/7 global payment system with very small fees and no restrictions like the ones banks have. if you really think about what bitcoin is truly doing then you can see that no matte how much energy it consumes it still wouldn't be too much.
as for environmental damage, anything that uses energy is damaging environment. humans living on earth are damaging the environment but would you stop living because of that?

[aggeyysido]

Until there is an independent scientific study that shows the damage (or non-damage) to the environment, this question does not make sense.