Is cryptocurrency bad for the environment?

[AverageGlabella]

Bitcoin is not more bad for the environment than other companies like Apple and Google they all run on Fossil fuels. Bitcoin is just seen as a unnecessary way of generating the block rewards but I think in the next couple of years we will see a lot more miners using green energy not because of the public backlash but because it will be cheaper for them in the long term to use green energy and that means they generate more profit.

it's true as you said, only people who hate bitcoin say bitcoin is damaging to the environment, not environmentally friendly, and also global warming, like china which says bitcoin mining causes a waste of energy, even though we know china can't control bitcoin under the control of their government, that's why they say negative things about bitcoin..

POW is not healthy for the environment if it is running on fossil fuels which is currently is with most miners but it was blown out of proportion by the media on how bad it is when you compare it to other companies that use fossil fuels.

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[Kittygalore]

Wanna know what's bad for the environment? The energy sources like coals and oils being burned everyday to produce electricity, it's not cryptocurrencies that causes these damages to the environment, aren't cryptocurrencies the same as a single household? They both consume electricity but not produce them meaning they aren't the problem plus even if we find ways to conserve in household or consumer level, it will only do so much.

[conected]

there is no reason to say bitcoin is bad for the environment, only some people say bitcoin is bad for the environment, bitcoin has long been founded by satoshi nagatomo, why only now there are so many debates like that, if bitcoin really damages the environment why not prevent it in the first place..

Most times the people who says bitcoin is bad for the environment say it out of ignorance, most of them have little or no understanding about bitcoin and possibly just take any Damn bad news there hear about bitcoin. I can proudly say bitcoin adds value to the environment, check out in some countries where there are lack of job opportunities, crypto trading and investing in bitcoin serves as a self employment to their citizens thereby reducing the rate of poverty.

cryptocurrencies don't harm the environment like you said. With the existence of cryptocurrencies some of them have reduced their actions in the environment, some of their time is just to monitor the future growth of the market. On the other hand, they have indirectly increased the economic growth in the environment they live in.

- They indirectly increase the value of the environment and their lives but they also indirectly reduce the standard of living of a few people because the crypto market is the story where a lot of people deposit and withdraw, there are so many different fingerprints on every coin, so a small part of crypto is causing harm to the environment without us realizing it. Besides, the natural environment is also influenced by technologies and companies, crypto allows mining and building many platforms, the volume of high-tech machinery requires a strong energy source, directly create waste for the living environment

[ninabobo]

We can't call cryptocurrency bad for the environment when we know fully well we are all benefiting from it's end result, crypto consumes so much energy or can I say electricity that's why it's been called bad for the environment, but we all can't deny the fact that without crypto the world wouldn't have been this easy as it is, live without crypto could have been a bit weird, talking about climate change they are more bigger companies that desecrates the environment even more and doesn't add values to human as bitcoin did.

[Ayiranorea]

Everything has got good and bad. Whatever we do on earth makes some harm to the environment, and everytime bitcoin was connected with the increased electricity usage as the major harm. This is like praising the usage of electric vehicles usage. The co₂ emission from combustion engine is much low compared to the co₂ released on the process of manufacturing lithium battery. There'll be more other things harming the environment, but some people's eye has the visibility on bitcoin mining alone.

[LittleBitFunny]

I got this on Cointelegraph
If you do a serial based on destructive things, the banking system and the gold and diamond industries are more destructive than bitcoin. Even Xbox game studies are consuming much more Energy than Bitcoin mining. There is no headache in wasting energy on these non-productive activities, but all the problems are just with bitcoin mining! where bitcoin is the ultimate solution of prevention of banking corruption.

If the image is of annual energy consumption of the total banking system of the world, then it doesn't look good for Bitcoin because it's used by 1-2% of the population, whereas bank accounts are used by at least 50% of the population. That being said, I'm not sure this number for the banking system actually accounts for everything. For example, there are TONS of bank branches in every big city, and does this number take into account all the electricity bills for keeping these buildings heated and full of light? If not, it's not a very fair comparison.
We have to be conscious of energy waste, but it's also important to focus or moving to alternative energy sources rather than on reducing energy consumption.

@kryptqnick, Your argument is valid, But my explanation is not brief, I just showed an example and wanted to say that some people are expressing extremely allergenic behavior for Bitcoin only.
Environment is not a big issue for them, they are attacking Bitcoin only, without paying attention to other harmful activities where bitcoin-mining is 70 times more eco-friendly than Gold-mining.
Their main target is attacking only Bitcoin, I didn't dig more, better you could read @fillippone's explanation, I got that very informative and well discussed.

Debunking the "Bitcoin is an environmental disaster" argument

[Robinson66]

something important that is always overlooked when people talk about energy consumption and environment is that the amount of energy consumed is not important at all, WHAT that energy is being used FOR is important.

when we have a very useful decentralized currency that is working 24/7 for the whole world, then the amount of energy that it takes to secure this network is negligible no matter how much it is.
at the same time when we have thousands of useless altcoins (that is the cryptocurrencies) that have no purpose and are only pumped and dumped then even a single electron being spent for them is wasteful.

to answer the main question here, yes altcoins are bad for environment.

We can't stop the release of the cottage, even if the Shanzhai coin is contaminated with environmental pollution, we can't do something.
If you want to stop the cottages, then Bitcoin will also be affected.
Some of the impact of some mountain treascoin will involve Bitcoin, allowing Bitcoin to bear public opinion.
Because it is said that the encrypted currency will think of Bitcoin, it will not think of the useless cottage coins.

[businessgirl]

already answered  that energy consume on paper money is much greater than energy consuming miners. no one have said that paper money is bad for environment. who said this should compare bitcoin consuming energy with all other payment source. i assure  you bitcoin consuming  energy is very low.
also now miners started to transfer mining into new energy which will consume low energy and will have no bad effect on enviornmrnt.

[5thFear]

The culprit is the energy generation ways. Bitcoin and other crypto currencies just utilize the energy. So if we have to take it that way, then the energy is also used in daily home usage, agriculture industry, every business, stock market etc, infact every field of life use energy so they all should be blamed.
Instead of generating clean energy, we are just blaming the products that use it. This is not the right mindset, with this mindset we can't move from a lowly "Type 0 civilization" to "Type I Civilization".

[funsponge]

Cryptucurrency is not bad for the environment what is bad is the miners that decide to mine the cryptocurrencies it is their choice if they want to use green energy or not and most of them at the moment are not using green energy and that is what the criticism comes from but I think because of the issues have not been highlighted slowly each miner will change to green energy.

[glendall]

From what point of view does bitcoin mining have a negative impact on the environment?
do you mean the use of coal as a power plant that you use?
I think electricity can be generated using water and steam, so technological intelligence will provide a solution if one material runs out for electricity, there is another backup power source

[imstillthebest]

Cryptucurrency is not bad for the environment what is bad is the miners that decide to mine the cryptocurrencies it is their choice if they want to use green energy or not and most of them at the moment are not using green energy and that is what the criticism comes from but I think because of the issues have not been highlighted slowly each miner will change to green energy.

they can be contented in their situation like they have a moderate fees for electricity thats why they dont bother switching to green energy and the transition to a different energy can also be complicated to some due to their area but for those that doesnt have a problem from switching to green energy why not ? they can be a big help in this issue .

[Gbniman]

It's  unclear exactly who dreamt up bitcoin, so no one knows what this person was thinking when the mining protocols were first established. But, as Ari Juels, a computer scientist at Cornell Tech, recently explained to me, the arrangement seems to have been designed with equity in mind. Anyone devoting a processor to the enterprise would have just as much stake in the outcome as anyone else. As is so often the case, though, the ideal was soon subverted.
Mining is the process by which bitcoin is both created and accounted for. Instead of being cleared by, say, a bank, bitcoin transactions are recorded by a decentralized network—a blockchain. Miners compete to register the latest “block” of transactions by solving cryptographic puzzles. The first one to the solution is rewarded with freshly minted bitcoin. Miners today receive 6.25 bitcoins per block, which, at current values, are worth more than three hundred thousand dollars.

[xiboothrezi]

~
There are other steps being taken to mine cryptocurrency quickly and use less energy while doing so. For example, the government in El Salvador has recently adopted Bitcoin as their legal currency on June 9, 2021. These are mined using the energy from nearby active volcanoes to promote a more sustainable process.

so there is actually a solution to reduce the bad environmental impact of mining cryptocurrencies. this is a good solution, hopefully it will be realized soon and can silence the mouths of those who always blame crypto, especially bitcoin, because the mining process is considered environmentally unfriendly.

after all, mining is not currently the main focus of developing new crypto projects. besides, there are actually many other real projects in the world that are more dangerous in polluting the environment, factories, gold mining, etc. many things have the potential to harm the environment, but when it comes to bitcoin, it's bound to be hyperbole.
btw, thanks op, the information is very useful.

[andeluna]

I never see the cryptocurrency bad for the environment but only people making it bad. We all know that only people are the one abusing our environtment specially to those business man/woman that have factory like chemical factory,plastic ware etc. And if you are pointing in your thread the mining of crypto using big mining Rig in some other country I thought its only give little percent to have a bad effect to the environment for all we know that not all country using it and know about crypto currency.

[24Kt]

I never see the cryptocurrency bad for the environment but only people making it bad. We all know that only people are the one abusing our environtment specially to those business man/woman that have factory like chemical factory,plastic ware etc. And if you are pointing in your thread the mining of crypto using big mining Rig in some other country I thought its only give little percent to have a bad effect to the environment for all we know that not all country using it and know about crypto currency.

In short, there are other human activities that are more damaging to the environment. And in terms of crypto, at least, this technology is helping a lot of people. Also, there are other alternative ways on how to address the situation of crypto mining like using renewable energy sources. So it means, the problem is solvable and can be addressed with other options.

[iTradeChips]

For one, you have to consider that cryptocurrency mining is decentralized, and that these miners, some uses more energy than others, and while some use more energy, some of them also use clean, renewable energy sources and leaves a very small carbon footprint. Sure you can spread news like crypto mining is bad for the environment and many people will believe in it and will somehow put crypto as a dirty technology for polluting the planet and all, but I also have to consider the politics and the motives of those who say it is a bad technology too. Are they sincere or do they have an agenda?

[leea-1334]

For one, you have to consider that cryptocurrency mining is decentralized, and that these miners, some uses more energy than others, and while some use more energy, some of them also use clean, renewable energy sources and leaves a very small carbon footprint. Sure you can spread news like crypto mining is bad for the environment and many people will believe in it and will somehow put crypto as a dirty technology for polluting the planet and all, but I also have to consider the politics and the motives of those who say it is a bad technology too. Are they sincere or do they have an agenda?

Not 100% decentralized. For sure more decentralized than anything else you can take into comparison, and after the China ban in fact a bit more of a blessing than a curse because it forced even more decentralization now and allowed more variety of nodes to be part of the Bitcoin network.

But that apart, old arguments about environment must always take into account cost + benefit. Not just cost alone like all these people do,,, which ignores what we get from the mining (security most importantly).

[xSkylarx]

What is baddest  the people who destroy the environment because of their shits or the Mining of crypto in which many are using alternative source of energy like solar paneling or wind energy? and El Salvador is trying to mine now using geothermal energy.

Most miners are now converting to green energy because we know that most countries have high electricity prices, so converting to renewable energy saves us money while maintaining the same efficiency, and it also has the potential to have a positive impact on the environment. Although it is initially expensive and requires money, it will be cost effective and require less maintenance in the future. It's also a good idea to locate your mining rigs in a cold location, such as Greenland, where they have rigs and use renewable energy.

[lepbagong]

Bitcoin mining is considered environmentally unfriendly because it uses fossil fuel energy. If crypto or bitcoin mining uses solar energy or water, surely the mining will be environmentally friendly. In my opinion, in addition to the proof of stake system, using a proof of work system like bitcoin is also not a problem as long as it uses environmentally friendly renewable energy.

It's true that mining is not environmentally friendly, because the growth of bitcoin enthusiasts is getting higher, resulting in consequences that ultimately mining is a problem for now. Mining is very much, because it is very profitable so that they do not think about the impact that occurs from the mining. so that it becomes a spotlight that has an adverse impact on the environment.

maybe with the problems that occur it will open the mind to do updates (many alternatives that can be done) but maybe it can't be instant and it takes time to be able to change things that are already used to renewable methods. like it or not, there has to be an update in bitcoin mining because it is really needed to be able to not have an impact on the environment.