The ugly side of Bitcoin

[fiulpro]

We all know how beneficial it is for us to have a currency like Bitcoin , something that we can use without any interference and without any middle man, but there is always a problem with things that we usually unsee because of the huge benefits it earns to us and this time it's environmental pollution.
Bitcoin as we know it requires mining to continue it's supply , but the thing is mining consumes Tons of energy and thus makes it harder for us to cope up with the stress it is putting up on the environment.
Pollution, global warming  Bitcoin is causing all this , one might argue that it won't be necessary after a while but what about right now ? It's hurting the environment and we have no stable solution for this.
Shouldn't we focus on this too ? Rather than other things ?

[CrypeX.]

In relation how useful bitcoin is i think the polution from the mining farms / transactions is worth it.
I’m more worried about the polution by manufacturing and disposing the batteries for e-cars...

[Pursuer]

the mining and its costs is so old right now. these days the new "drama" and "FUD" that people are using about bitcoin is with Tether and Bitfinex's shadiness. you have to keep up and stop rehashing the discussions that are already see through because of being discussed a million times

[figmentofmyass]

We all know how beneficial it is for us to have a currency like Bitcoin , something that we can use without any interference and without any middle man, but there is always a problem with things that we usually unsee because of the huge benefits it earns to us and this time it's environmental pollution.
Bitcoin as we know it requires mining to continue it's supply , but the thing is mining consumes Tons of energy and thus makes it harder for us to cope up with the stress it is putting up on the environment.
Pollution, global warming  Bitcoin is causing all this , one might argue that it won't be necessary after a while but what about right now ? It's hurting the environment and we have no stable solution for this.
Shouldn't we focus on this too ? Rather than other things ?

the fundamental problem here is that humans are still using money. you think the banking system consumes no energy and has no carbon footprint? how about gold mining?!

bitcoin didn't solve the problem of how to secure money without energy consumption. that hasn't been solved yet and may never be.

[Genemind]

We all know how beneficial it is for us to have a currency like Bitcoin , something that we can use without any interference and without any middle man, but there is always a problem with things that we usually unsee because of the huge benefits it earns to us and this time it's environmental pollution.
Bitcoin as we know it requires mining to continue it's supply , but the thing is mining consumes Tons of energy and thus makes it harder for us to cope up with the stress it is putting up on the environment.
Pollution, global warming  Bitcoin is causing all this , one might argue that it won't be necessary after a while but what about right now ? It's hurting the environment and we have no stable solution for this.
Shouldn't we focus on this too ? Rather than other things ?

This had been a topic for a long time whether it is worth it to mine bitcoin or not because of the amount of energy it consumes. If ot brings convenience to anyone, why not.  We were able to cut middle-men such as banks when doing are transactions. Move money or buy stuff conveniently without further delay, and improve technolgy, provide job and investment opportunities.

That is why there are alternatives than consuming electricity produced by coal. Some mining farms utilize natural energy which is cost efficient in the long-run.

[talkbitcoin]

that is not the ugly side of "bitcoin", i would go as far as saying it has nothing to do with bitcoin. it is all about the ugly side of the electric producing companies that have been producing it inefficiently and with lots of pollutions. bitcoin is just using what is offered to it by them. we can't change everything. we have revolutionized the concept of currency from being centralized to being decentralized, you can't expect us to also revolutionize the electricity production too!

[waynechong1995]

Its so minimal compared big scale national operational such as mineral mining or other natural resources abundance in waste and energies. Renewable energy could easily sustain bitcoin network across the globe in futures and we sees pictures bigger than just bitcoins. Securing a network is much more easily when done through programs. Ugly side of bitcoin always come from people not the technology itself.

[darklus123]

Every production is indeed causing some environmental problem, but basically bitcoin is only using electricity power which is already been working around the globe for quite sometime.

If you don't want this kind of work then I think you should also stop using any gadgets or appliances right? This issue is not for bitcoin to solve instead people should do something in creating a more environmental way of getting sources of energy such as electricity.

[PointHope]

The advent of generation IV/V nuclear power over the next few years is going to change the dynamics of Bitcoin.

[noormcs5]

We all know how beneficial it is for us to have a currency like Bitcoin , something that we can use without any interference and without any middle man, but there is always a problem with things that we usually unsee because of the huge benefits it earns to us and this time it's environmental pollution.
Bitcoin as we know it requires mining to continue it's supply , but the thing is mining consumes Tons of energy and thus makes it harder for us to cope up with the stress it is putting up on the environment.
Pollution, global warming  Bitcoin is causing all this , one might argue that it won't be necessary after a while but what about right now ? It's hurting the environment and we have no stable solution for this.
Shouldn't we focus on this too ? Rather than other things ?

I don't think any of your argument is valid. Bitcoin mining uses a lot of energy but if you look around almost everything uses electricity and energy to run.
You cannot say that global warming or environmental pollution is only because of Bitcoin. It is the industries around the world who are producing wastes which is gathering up in the form of global warming. Bitcoin mining contribution is almost none as compare to other industry.

[Yara1]

We all know how beneficial it is for us to have a currency like Bitcoin , something that we can use without any interference and without any middle man, but there is always a problem with things that we usually unsee because of the huge benefits it earns to us and this time it's environmental pollution.
Bitcoin as we know it requires mining to continue it's supply , but the thing is mining consumes Tons of energy and thus makes it harder for us to cope up with the stress it is putting up on the environment.
Pollution, global warming  Bitcoin is causing all this , one might argue that it won't be necessary after a while but what about right now ? It's hurting the environment and we have no stable solution for this.
Shouldn't we focus on this too ? Rather than other things ?

Let me ask a question, despite the high rate of pollution generated by industrial machines should we stop industrialization, bitcoin mining is the power house of bitcoin and at that whatever sacrifice we have to pay for it operations is not too much.

[Janation]

We earn from it and we find ways to reduce this.

I know that there are a lot of negative things that Bitcoin brought us but when we will be talking about pollutions? Global warming? Do we really need to think that mining Bitcoin will mainly start this? We've been using paper all this time, think how many trees have brought down just to make those, I think that doesn't start pollution or global warming but only mining of Bitcoin does.

[FlightyPouch]

Consume a lot of energy he says but right now there are a lot of sources of energy that don't really use the usual gasoline or maybe coals. We now have renewable sources of energy, the popular example of it is the sun, the wind even the rain are said to be one. We humans are the main problem and not Bitcoin mining, we start pollution and global warming.

[bitbunnny]

When it comes to environment I'm the first who will fight for its protection. Still compared to other sources of pollution, I think that the amount caused by Bitcoin as well as energy consumption for mining is not worth so much worry. I would also like to see some research whiich would clearly show how really big the problem is because now we can only guess how much global warming or energy consumption is caused by Bitcoin. But alternative sources of energy could be the one of possible solution.

[ralle14]

My opinion about this is we shouldn't worry about Bitcoin mining causing a huge problem in the future because it's far from being a threat to the environment and as figment mentioned there are other activities that consumes more than Bitcoin. This is just exaggeration on how Bitcoin could pose a problem when there's so many bigger problems to the environment. Stopping Bitcoin or reducing the power consumption might not change anything.

Also here are some old threads that discussed the same topic.
Power consumption of Bitcoin mining
Bitcoin uses too much energy
Stop worrying about how much energy bitcoin uses

[therhslv]

What about all the ATM's , Banks , Bank storages , transfers of FIAT money does that not consume big energy like electricity to run all of that . I think Miners consume just like 5-10% of the energy that Banks consume . Technology is addapting really fast and im 100% sure that not far from now somebody will come up with something better to run hardwares and things that runs currently on electricity =] New form of energy i mean =D

[Yaunfitda]

Do you have proofs that mining really affected the environment in a bad way? Or is this just your own opinion? I understand that this is just another attack entry for those who don't like haters but banks as well are creating pollutants in the environment.

https://phys.org/news/2018-08-energy-bitcoin.html

[goaldigger]

We all know how beneficial it is for us to have a currency like Bitcoin , something that we can use without any interference and without any middle man, but there is always a problem with things that we usually unsee because of the huge benefits it earns to us and this time it's environmental pollution.
Bitcoin as we know it requires mining to continue it's supply , but the thing is mining consumes Tons of energy and thus makes it harder for us to cope up with the stress it is putting up on the environment.
Pollution, global warming  Bitcoin is causing all this , one might argue that it won't be necessary after a while but what about right now ? It's hurting the environment and we have no stable solution for this.
Shouldn't we focus on this too ? Rather than other things ?

Energy on mining is just isolated case and small compared to the pollution produced by large companies with damages not just ozone layer but the environment. I thought you would say something about hacking and doing illegal things because that really is the ugly side of bitcoin.

[coolcoinz]

This green talk is so overhyped it's not even interesting anymore. Please, get some numbers before you start generalizing! How much surplus energy is being produced around the world? This energy can't be stored and is being wasted. Whether bitcoin mining exists or not this energy will continue being produced and if not mining then other industries will eventually grow to use it.
Also, there's nothing stopping people from producing green energy if there's a branch of industry willing to pay for it. Miners want more, you build new solar/tidal/geothermal/hydro plant to supply them.

[1Referee]

Bitcoin's "pollution" is still orders of magnitude lower than the entire world banking system, the datacenters Google, Microsoft and Amazon operate, and I could continue for a while. You get the point (I hope).

The benefit of energy consumption is that it forces every involved party to look for an alternative, because you firstly want your rates to be cheaper (a business is a business at the end of the day), and the alternatives are cleaner as well, which reduces external (political) pressure on your operation, which is another incentive right there.

The worst part is that some people consider it a waste of energy, lol. Securing trillions worth of value every year is a waste, right.