Does cryptocurrency mining produce more pollution?

[DreamStage]

Considering electricity is used for mining and producing bitcoin takes time.

Time makes more pollution due to energy convertion into electricity so yes we can say it produces more.

But in case there's a small window and possibility to make it so the base source for that electricty comes from a clean source,
then for sure it would be more clean and a reliable solution for mining thus not poluting.

For that to happen every material being used for mining would have to come from a clean source which isn't possible currently.

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[tippytoes]

Ever since cryptocurrency has existed people have started to mine it using their PCs or Miners’ GPUs. Considering that cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of electricity because of it using a lot of processing power, does it really cause a large ecological impact on the world?

The energy used in Bitcoin mining is largely renewable and green -- solar, hydro, wind. Solar and wind are becoming the cheapest forms of electricity, so this trend will only continue. See here: Bitcoin mining is greener than most large-scale industries: report

Regarding coal-fired and other fossil fuel electricity, Bitcoin miners also utilize already-generated electricity that would otherwise be wasted by grid inefficiencies. In other words, a non-zero portion of the hash rate isn't really adding to electricity consumption. It's taking excess electricity that's already been generated. This is called "load balancing." Some people predict that large-scale Bitcoin miners will increasingly strike up load balancing agreements with power generators because it's a mutually beneficial arrangement.

It doesn't matter if its generated by renewable energy or not. In countries like China, a lot of the farms uses renewable energy. It is mostly due to their proximity to such facilities. However, most parts of the countries are still largely dependent on coal as a method of producing electricity. The energy that was utilised could very well be used to supply to others and the dependence on coal would be much lower. Until the whole world is using renewable energy, Bitcoin would still have some contributions to the pollution, albeit indirectly.

Its important to note that due to the nature of ASICs, it is difficult to repurpose them for anything else. This makes it more economical to dispose them directly as opposed to recycling them. It thus contribute to the problem of e-waste.

Everything that we do somehow contribute to pollution so bitcoin mining should not be given an isolated case. Banks and other commercial institutions largely contribute to this pollution issue as well. But I believe with crypto usage, we somehow reduce the pollution that it create along the way. Just take for example, if you want to convert your crypto to fiat, you only need few transactions and you're good to go. Less paper trail, less docs, less incurred waste, less time consumed. So that alone will give you an idea how crypto can reduce the waste that we are generating by dealing with crypto. And with the miners on the works, we will incur even less time for our crypto transactions. Less energy is being utilized eventually.

[Baofeng]

This has been discussed so many times in this community:

Is Bitcoin Mining Really Causing Environmental Damage? Maybe not that much...
Power consumption of Bitcoin mining
Reports of bitcoin environmental damage are garbage
Fake News Of The Day: "Bitcoin Mining Is A Growing Environmental Threat"
Bitcoin is Bad for the environment, taking the worlds energy - yes?
Can actually Bitcoin be good for the environment?

So I don't know if we really need another thread about that so called effects of bitcoin mining to the environment, just saying.

[boris2470]

Ever since cryptocurrency has existed people have started to mine it using their PCs or Miners’ GPUs. Considering that cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of electricity because of it using a lot of processing power, does it really cause a large ecological impact on the world?

Every time I see mining operations around the world, there are multiple miners in one place ranging from dozens to even hundreds in for those who can afford a lot of miners. That got me thinking that since there are a lot of GPUs running at once then it must use a lot of electricity which means that power plants, as a result, will need to generate more electricity which will lead to more pollution.

Is the carbon footprint of these mining operations large enough to make a large impact on the world or it doesn’t really cause a lot of pollution in the long run.
What do you guys think and are there any greener solutions for mining cryptocurrencies?

Mining is based on electricity consumption. That is why there are probably no alternatives

[Artemis3]

Ever since cryptocurrency has existed people have started to mine it using their PCs or Miners’ GPUs. Considering that cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of electricity because of it using a lot of processing power, does it really cause a large ecological impact on the world?

Every time I see mining operations around the world, there are multiple miners in one place ranging from dozens to even hundreds in for those who can afford a lot of miners. That got me thinking that since there are a lot of GPUs running at once then it must use a lot of electricity which means that power plants, as a result, will need to generate more electricity which will lead to more pollution.

Is the carbon footprint of these mining operations large enough to make a large impact on the world or it doesn’t really cause a lot of pollution in the long run.
What do you guys think and are there any greener solutions for mining cryptocurrencies?

I know this has been discussed several times, but what you should ask yourself is:

How Long Will Bitcoin Mining Be Sustainable? If miners now complain that they have losses or make very little profit, then I wonder what mining will be like 10 years from now? the cost of electricity will be much higher 10 years from now and how will mining be? Some people may tell me that the bitcoin price will also be much higher than the current price, but I ask again what if the bitcoin price is not much higher 10 years from now?

Exactly. It is not even sure it will remain profitable to mine 10 more years, in my opinion it will not. Large mining operations will come to an end, those that remain will be those with free energy, or those few that don't care to spend more to mine.

While bitcoin price will keep climbing, this is not in sync with mining profitability. In fact you can see for yourself how mining gradually becomes less and less profitable, and with every halving this becomes more and more so.

The greener solution is, the market. Just wait it out, and you'll see for yourself. All those miners you see struggling to pay bills, they will all go. Only those that don't care about "the bill" will remain.

[NavI_027]

Is the carbon footprint of these mining operations large enough to make a large impact on the world or it doesn’t really cause a lot of pollution in the long run.

Psh, why being botherd by the little damage contributed by the mining machines if millions of automobiles and hundreds of industrial plants already did a lot. If we compare the damage done by both parties, crypto mining is not so significant. So instead of focusing on it, we should regulate more the use of bigger engines in our industry.

I guess the only thing we could do to repair or to slow down what we've done is to use greener ways — renewable energy; or invent more efficient but less power consuming mining rigs in the future . And if someone insist that using fiat is cleaner then he should think twice, think all of the trees it consumed. Guess who is cleaner now .

[hello_good_sir]

Ever since cryptocurrency has existed people have started to mine it using their PCs or Miners’ GPUs. Considering that cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of electricity because of it using a lot of processing power, does it really cause a large ecological impact on the world?

The energy used in Bitcoin mining is largely renewable and green -- solar, hydro, wind. Solar and wind are becoming the cheapest forms of electricity, so this trend will only continue. See here: Bitcoin mining is greener than most large-scale industries: report

Not, that is what is going to change the climate issue, if people are renewable energy sources, they can use as much as they want. Personally, solar is becoming extremely useful and cheap, in my own country, the government gives out grants to people who want to buy solar panels, and they make back their money in cheaper electricity very quickly.

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Its important to note that due to the nature of ASICs, it is difficult to repurpose them for anything else. This makes it more economical to dispose them directly as opposed to recycling them. It thus contribute to the problem of e-waste.

Isn't this the same issue with a lot of computers? There are actually a lot of people who run computer recycling plants, and most of it comes down to plastic, and that's the main problem with computers and other stuff since it's extremely hard to dispose of them.

[blckhawk]

Compared to a global scale, it's not that much. In addition, ASICs are getting more energy efficient over time. Technological advancements happen as time pass by and energy consumption would lessen as these hardwares would require less energy to produce the same, if not better performance than previous chips.

Banking do use energy too, from facilities, establishments and such. It's quite comparable but the thing is cryptocurrency does not need much miscellaneous facilities.

[Murat]

I don't think so, Cryptocurrency mining is not producing any harmful thing to the environment so far, If you compare with other economic activities then you see a lot of electricity wastage, but many cryptocurrency miners are using alternative electricity so it doesn't bring anything negative to the environment, it's very clear that cryptocurrency mining is not producing any gases like our vehicles, industrial factory and so on, so it's safe for our environment. most important thing is that electricity was invented for human daily life so using in cryptocurrency mining is not any harm from my opinion.

[Darooghe]

Firstly, most crypto miners are typically in locations with extremely cheap energy, due to an energy surplus. this means that if Crypto miners were not using the energy, it would go to waste anyways. Secondly Let's see what is the energy use of the banking system with all it's servers and offices everywhere full of client computers, ATM's, service points where the lights always stay on transportation of cash, etc. I am sure it is very larger than Crypto mining. Third with migrating to a PoS or other protocol you can get less than 1% of the energy use compared to current consumption of crypto mining.

[Firecold4]

The solution is to wait for more sophisticated and economical technology with electric power sources so that it can reduce pollution because as we know it is not possible to replace the power source to other power sources because every electronic must use electricity to run

[CryptoBry]

Is the carbon footprint of these mining operations large enough to make a large impact on the world or it doesn’t really cause a lot of pollution in the long run. What do you guys think and are there any greener solutions for mining cryptocurrencies?

There is no question that since Bitcoin mining is requiring a lot of energy, there will always be carbon footprint involved. However, we have to understand that  all industries are contributing to the build-up of carbon monoxide and other pollutants in the environment. Maybe what we really need is a better mining technology that is requiring less power so that once and for all we can get away from the tag of not being pro-environment. We need a greener approach to this industry and I am hoping that can be coming soon.

[romero121]

In one way it consumes more electricity for the entire network function without flaw. The electricity consumed and the output it provides is more effective compared with the usage of electricity consumed on various other needs to perform similar task. The task can be of transactions, other data storage and so on.

When it comes to pollution what bitcoin mining causes is very simple, maybe in future when there is mass usage compared to the present there might be drastic increase. Most of the mining firms are kept in location where there is not much of energy required to provide cooling. This way heat too isn't left to the environment, so the global pollution is rising of various other factors and not because of mining.

[zviadits]

Ever since cryptocurrency has existed people have started to mine it using their PCs or Miners’ GPUs. Considering that cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of electricity because of it using a lot of processing power, does it really cause a large ecological impact on the world?

Every time I see mining operations around the world, there are multiple miners in one place ranging from dozens to even hundreds in for those who can afford a lot of miners. That got me thinking that since there are a lot of GPUs running at once then it must use a lot of electricity which means that power plants, as a result, will need to generate more electricity which will lead to more pollution.

Is the carbon footprint of these mining operations large enough to make a large impact on the world or it doesn’t really cause a lot of pollution in the long run.
What do you guys think and are there any greener solutions for mining cryptocurrencies?

Mining is harmful to the environment, it is inevitable. However, there are many similar things in the world that consume electricity.

[ampu]

I do not think it is polluted because currently the countries participating in crypto mining have been proactive in energy resources for crypto mining.  Mining cryptocurrencies with computer power consumes a lot of electrical energy and emits a lot of heat into the environment, but not much compared to engines of vehicles or factories.  Crypto mining generates significant profits.  Bitcoin mining companies have used solar energy, wind power ... to replace electricity from hydroelectricity.  In addition, the amount of heat they treat very well does not cause heat to affect the environment.  It is unreasonable to consider Bitcoin mining to adversely affect the environment as the level of impact is very low.

[bounceback]

Ever since cryptocurrency has existed people have started to mine it using their PCs or Miners’ GPUs. Considering that cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of electricity because of it using a lot of processing power, does it really cause a large ecological impact on the world?

Every time I see mining operations around the world, there are multiple miners in one place ranging from dozens to even hundreds in for those who can afford a lot of miners. That got me thinking that since there are a lot of GPUs running at once then it must use a lot of electricity which means that power plants, as a result, will need to generate more electricity which will lead to more pollution.

Is the carbon footprint of these mining operations large enough to make a large impact on the world or it doesn’t really cause a lot of pollution in the long run.
What do you guys think and are there any greener solutions for mining cryptocurrencies?

now bitcoin or other cryptocurrency miners continue to grow which makes it possible to provide higher electricity, we are certainly very worried that there will be a world electricity crisis, and of course cryptocurrency mining can cause environmental damage (pollution) the greenhouse effect, imagine if in the future miners bitcoin in the future will establish a bigger company that needs more electricity.

so the miners now really need a solution to tackle world pollution even further.

[migws]

Ever since cryptocurrency has existed people have started to mine it using their PCs or Miners’ GPUs. Considering that cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of electricity because of it using a lot of processing power, does it really cause a large ecological impact on the world?

Every time I see mining operations around the world, there are multiple miners in one place ranging from dozens to even hundreds in for those who can afford a lot of miners. That got me thinking that since there are a lot of GPUs running at once then it must use a lot of electricity which means that power plants, as a result, will need to generate more electricity which will lead to more pollution.

Is the carbon footprint of these mining operations large enough to make a large impact on the world or it doesn’t really cause a lot of pollution in the long run.
What do you guys think and are there any greener solutions for mining cryptocurrencies?

Here you need to make decisions that can neutralize the harmful effects of electricity. This is already a worldwide problem, mining is only a way of consuming electricity.

[Wintersoldier]

I do not think it is polluted because currently the countries participating in crypto mining have been proactive in energy resources for crypto mining.  Mining cryptocurrencies with computer power consumes a lot of electrical energy and emits a lot of heat into the environment, but not much compared to engines of vehicles or factories.  Crypto mining generates significant profits.  Bitcoin mining companies have used solar energy, wind power ... to replace electricity from hydroelectricity.  In addition, the amount of heat they treat very well does not cause heat to affect the environment.  It is unreasonable to consider Bitcoin mining to adversely affect the environment as the level of impact is very low.

It is not the hydroelectricity that causes more pollution to the environment but the people who are utilizing the coal to produce electricity If we are to burn fossil fuels, it will produce gasses that are harmful to our environment, and the solution is to use solar, wind and hydroelectric power plan some uses turbines, to generate electricity. But the issue is that, producing electricity is not enough with these resources, they still utilize coals. In cryptocurrency mining facilities, most aren't having their own generating electricity infrastructure, they are still paying electricity to local companies. That is why, we cannot blame cryptocurrency minings.

[o_e_l_e_o]

the cost of electricity will be much higher 10 years from now

That is far from a given. Renewable sources are rapidly expanding, which will bring the cost of electricty down in the long term. Many countries are passing laws requiring all new buildings to have solar panels or other ways of producing green energy. If a mining farm is powered directly form solar panels or similar, then the price of electricty is irrelevant since the miner is producing their own.

Bitcoin Miners Draw more and more power while not increasing function or transaction capacity of bitcoin at all.

A higher hashrate confers more security on the bitcoin network.

[ChrisPop]

As far as I have read crypto mining makes its "contribution" to the carbon footprint of humanity on the planet, but many of the farms out there mostly use green energy because it's more cost effective in some cases and they also protect the environment. But the ones who largely use energy from fossil combustibles should offset their carbon footprint by buying international carbon credits. I believe Zero Carbon Project offer a service like that where you can buy credits with BTC or something like that.