Bitcoin and Climate Change

[bitcoinethereum]

I was reading a great article today on coindesk by Ian Allison that talked about Bitcoin's sustainability in this new era of climate change activism. It proposed an interesting question that because Bitcoin uses so much computing power to mine blocks, and therefore consumes vast amounts of energy, will it be sustainable in the long term? I would add a follow question to this of: Will or how greatly will this affect mainstream adoption going forward? I think this is a good time to reignite this discussion as climate change and activism has never been more prevalent.

My thoughts are that although Bitcoin uses a considerable amount of energy, when related to climate change and its impact on the environment it pales in comparison to other industries burning of fossil fuels, as well as deforestation and farming. Furthermore, because Bitcoin is reshaping global finance, I feel that it will be around for the long term.

That's not to say Greta Thunberg will ever approve of Bitcoin's mining rigs, but most people, business, and governments will understand Bitcoin offers a valuable technology, even in the face of tightening climate change practices and policies.

But what do you think?

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[odolvlobo]

I think it is important to acknowledge this up front: Electricity usage does not cause climate change.

Focusing on electricity usage is not an effective way to minimize or mitigate climate change. Climate change is primarily caused by the release of CO₂ and methane into the atmosphere. Certain types of electricity generation are major producers of CO₂, so the effort should focus on these types of generation. Reducing or eliminating them will have a direct effect on climate change, regardless of how the electricity is used.

[Darker45]

It seems to me that reasons such as "it pales in comparison to" this and that is simply lacking. That is not convincing at all. You cannot just say, "oh yes, we are destroying the environment but there are others out there that are doing it much worse." That does not excuse you. In the same manner that you cannot invoke your contribution as an excuse to the damage it causes. That argument of justifying the means for the end is wanting.

I guess Bitcoin is pretty much in the path of sustainability. I think Bitcoin is not so stubborn and adamant to stick to the old unsustainable ways. Bitcoin's mining energy consumption is now turning into green or renewable sources of energy. I cannot confirm whether this is true or not but it is being claimed that at least 74% of Bitcoin's mining power is coming from renewable energy.^[1][2][3]

[1] https://cointelegraph.com/news/study-over-74-of-bitcoin-mining-is-powered-by-renewable-energy
[2] https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-shockingly-renewable-energy/
[3] https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/study-74-percent-of-bitcoin-mining-powered-with-renewable-energy

[yazher]

Although this scenario will only take place in the long run, this should be taken care of and should be studied well to get ready when those times come. they should think of other alternatives to use other than consuming a massive amount of electrical energy. I'm sure later on they will find something suitable to use if they will move and fund some research for this. Blockchain technologies are improving one by one, developers are making something new every year, to have some kind of technologies that will make bitcoin an eco-friendly thing, that would be a good thing to consider right now.

[mk4]

Millions of people worldwide are using their PlayStations, Xboxes and such, and no one cares. Pretty much devices that's mostly only for entertainment. Meanwhile a lot of miners are mining bitcoin that benefits the network(and of course for them to make money) to help people become self-sovereign and suddenly it's all a waste of energy.

Speaking of Greta Thunberg, I actually secretly wish she starts attacking Bitcoin. That's going to be a lot of extra publicity for us LOL.

[btc_angela]

Lol, this has been discussed so many times before, and I think it has been debunked already.

And as far as I can remember, majority of China's bitcoin mining farm are using renewable energy.

You can also read everything here, https://phys.org/news/2018-08-energy-bitcoin.html

[barto123]

First; Gold mining/Finance sector currently uses ridiculously more  - Bitcoin could potential replace both.

Second; Bitcoin incentivizes renewable energy - cheaper you can mine Bitcoin, the better.

Thirdly; Generally speaking Bitcoiners tend to be quite ethical and are all about improving the world. The way I see it Bitcoin could also be used as a token to more accurately price electricity, in whatever form it takes place.

Regardless of all of this, hard money will eventually become extremely important (probably sometime soon by the looks of it).

Bitcoin in my opinion, will be a blessing in disguise for Climate Change.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Bitcoin is a drop in the ocean in terms of energy consumption and the release of greenhouse gases. Last year, streaming online pornography accounted for over 30 times more greenhouse gas release than the entire bitcoin network and all bitcoin mining did. With so many people currently on lockdown or quarantined within their own homes, that number is going to be several multitudes higher right now. While we get posts on here at least once a week saying that bitcoin is doomed because it isn't environmentally friendly, I've never once seen climate change campaigners try to convince people to watch less porn, even though it is by far and away worse for the environment than bitcoin is. I've never once seen climate change campaigners try to convince people to stop using cash, despite cash requiring huge amount of energy to print, circulate, move around in armored vans, destroy, replace, all the electricity use of ATMs and banks, etc.

Bitcoin is extremely efficient for what it does.

Millions of people worldwide are using their PlayStations, Xboxes and such, and no one cares.

Yup. Factoring in the electricity consumption of games consoles, TVs, sound systems, and PCs, it absolutely dwarfs bitcoin. Making video gaming 1% more efficient would save more energy than the entire bitcoin network.

[Debonaire217]

I think it is important to acknowledge this up front: Electricity usage does not cause climate change.

It might not be, but it can be a cause of climate change. Please do consider, some power plants mainly those who support wide scale service of providing electricity to a wide scale people do actually burns allot of coals and fossil fuels in order to generate electricity. There are some renewable electricity sources but that wasn't really enough to replace the traditional production of electricity through coals.

In terms of bitcoin and climate change, there is no clear evidence that it doesn't consume a huge amount of energy. There are some country that surrenders being a bitcoin mining site, just because the electricity bill is quite high.

[seoincorporation]

I think it is important to acknowledge this up front: Electricity usage does not cause climate change.

It could cause it, let's remember not all the electricity came from clean energy like a water press... Most of the energy is generated by burning carbon or nuclear plants. A good example is Las Vegas Nevada. That's one of the places that spend more energy in the world and all that energy comes from burning carbon. So, we can be sure that is a piece of climate change.

[kecha1]

Now is not the best time to think about climate change. Now you need to sit at home, trade cryptocurrencies and donate to create a vaccine against COVID-19.

[Lucius]

People should stop reading stupid articles written by even more stupid people, which aim to create a false image of how BTC is an evil that destroys our environment. Among other things, this component is one of the main attack vectors used by the banking sector mercenaries, who in addition to declaring us criminals, terrorists, or those who undermine existing financial systems, also want to attach to us the etiquette of people who destroying the planet using unbelievable amounts of electricity produced in coal-fired power plants. The lie told thousands of times in the global media, however, is taking root and is becoming something the majority adopts as truth.

One wonders what's in the head of the person making the statement Your Bitcoin Should Be Seized to Pay for Climate Reparations or The huge amounts of electricity used to trade the cryptocurrency could push global temperatures above 2 degrees Celsius by 2033.

Will there come a day when they will truly mark us as the ones who destroyed the planet?

[BrewMaster]

this subject has been brought up hundreds of time, nearly every week in some months. and there is always one obvious problem that is overlooked, bitcoin is not consuming fuel and is not producing pollutions, the electric companies are. bitcoin is just the consumer of the electricity they produce. if you want to complain about climate change, pollution,... you should go to the source that is electric companies and complain there.
now here is the interesting part, a large portion of bitcoin's electricity comes from clean sources such as renewable energies!

[vycl87]

I think it is important to acknowledge this up front: Electricity usage does not cause climate change.

I don't think so. We should investigate which energy source we use when we are mining Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies.
Some energy sources create pollution. Not just air but water, flora, soil... etc. Therefore, we can not say that mining does not affect climate change. But if clean energy sources are used and this is sufficient, then what you say is correct.

However, as far as we know, the energy consumed during mining operations is still very small compared to the energy consumed worldwide. Therefore, it is not yet taken into consideration by anyone. However, I am sure that serious examinations and data will emerge in the future.

[BrewMaster]

I think it is important to acknowledge this up front: Electricity usage does not cause climate change.

I don't think so. We should investigate which energy source we use when we are mining Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies.
Some energy sources create pollution. Not just air but water, flora, soil... etc. Therefore, we can not say that mining does not affect climate change. But if clean energy sources are used and this is sufficient, then what you say is correct.

the problem is that bitcoin can not change that. for example if you were a bitcoin miner with a big mining farm you can't force your electric company to use clean energies instead of whatever they are using right now. you must accept whatever they offer you or not mine at all. and that is what all miners do.

[kryptqnick]

I think it is important to acknowledge this up front: Electricity usage does not cause climate change.

Focusing on electricity usage is not an effective way to minimize or mitigate climate change. Climate change is primarily caused by the release of CO₂ and methane into the atmosphere. Certain types of electricity generation are major producers of CO₂, so the effort should focus on these types of generation. Reducing or eliminating them will have a direct effect on climate change, regardless of how the electricity is used.

I think the same when it comes to electricity. Some things can be reduced, such as not buying a car or eating less (or no) meat, but the energy consumption is bound to grow if we don't want the technological development to stop. My country is not very eco-friendly, but even here half of electricity is sustainable. I also remember various reports claiming that Bitcoin mining is mainly using eco-friendly sources of energy, actually, so the whole topic of Bitcoin harming the environment is partially a misconception. But whose responsibility it should be where the electricity comes from is another question. I think it also largely depends on a country because not everywhere a company can make this choice alone.

[hatshepsut93]

My thoughts are that although Bitcoin uses a considerable amount of energy, when related to climate change and its impact on the environment it pales in comparison to other industries burning of fossil fuels, as well as deforestation and farming. Furthermore, because Bitcoin is reshaping global finance, I feel that it will be around for the long term.

These are my thoughts exactly, Bitcoin's footprint is really tiny compared to things like cruise liners or agriculture, so people who want to stop Bitcoin because it causes global warming are likely just being misled by nocoiner trolls who spread all sorts of negative information about Bitcoin. It's especially ridiculous when they say that Bitcoin will soon consume all the Earth's electricity, just because it's energy consumption was growing in the past very quickly. In reality it will slow down significantly because of the halvenings.

[dothebeats]

Electricity usage does not and will not affect climate change. The production of electricity, however, is a different thing. CO2 emissions mainly help in increasing the global average temperature here on earth, and most of the electricity being generated today are from fossil fuels which are being burned, producing CO2 and being trapped in the atmosphere. If you are keeping up with most bitcoin farms, most of them have since moved into cleaner, cheaper and more efficient ways to generate electricity, so the notion that bitcoin mining contributed heavily to CO2 emissions and climate change is false.

For China alone, miners have moved into mountains near waterfalls so as to harness energy from resources available in there. In Iceland where most of their electricity comes from geothermal or hydroelectric power plants, some miners have already moved to the said location and began hashing there. If you look into the statistics published recently, the banking industry alone reaps a massive 100 terrawatts of electricity to sustain their ATMs and other devices, compared to the puny 28.7 terrawatts consumed by bitcoin miners all over the world.

[ololajulo]

Lol, this has been discussed so many times before, and I think it has been debunked already.

And as far as I can remember, majority of China's bitcoin mining farm are using renewable energy.

You can also read everything here, https://phys.org/news/2018-08-energy-bitcoin.html

Such people like the OP wont search the forum for relevant topics and they wont even check the thread they open to read the comment and answer to their post. Mining is no more for the poor, so most people getting to it have enough fund to cater for the energy consumption most especially as renewable energy. Mining is equally a long term investment as in any other cryptocurrency project, they can afford to keep every bitcoin mine till the bullrun and take their profit in bigger bags.

[squatter]

I don't think so. We should investigate which energy source we use when we are mining Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies.
Some energy sources create pollution. Not just air but water, flora, soil... etc. Therefore, we can not say that mining does not affect climate change. But if clean energy sources are used and this is sufficient, then what you say is correct.

the problem is that bitcoin can not change that. for example if you were a bitcoin miner with a big mining farm you can't force your electric company to use clean energies instead of whatever they are using right now. you must accept whatever they offer you or not mine at all. and that is what all miners do.

The important thing to consider is that renewable energy sources are becoming cheaper and cheaper. For roughly 2/3 of the world, renewable sources are cheaper than coal and other carbon-based sources.

That's why 3/4 of the Bitcoin mining network is already running on renewable energy.

Since Bitcoin miners rationally seek out the cheapest electricity sources, over time they will be increasingly using renewable energy. That's just a market reality. These fears about Bitcoin contributing to climate change are not warranted.