Do You Think Bitcoin Mining Will Be Banned Due to Fears of Climate Change?

[NotATether]

For all that it's worth, they can all take a hike. They'll have to ban BitcoinCleanup.com first before they can stand a chance of banning proof of work mining. A little nudge by a former Ripple CEO isn't going to change anything.

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[LDL]

In today's world the use of Bitcoin is increasing, Bitcoin mining is increasing due to the widespread use of Bitcoin in other fields including Bitcoin investment.  Studies have shown that electronic waste will increase as the price of Bitcoin increases, and Bitcoin mining requires large amounts of electricity as well as fuel oil, which poses a serious threat to the environment.

A 2021 study found that the total energy required for Bitcoin mining is 1% of the total energy on Earth.  A group of researchers from the University of Cambridge conducted a study and revealed that Bitcoin mining consumes about 121 terawatts of electricity annually, which is equal to the entire electricity of a country.

In addition to all these negative aspects, Bitcoin mining is enough to pose a serious threat to countries that operate coal-based power plants.  Every day millions of tons of carbon dioxide are released into the air just for Bitcoin mining.  As a result, along with the increase in the temperature of the environment, the melting of the ice in the polar regions will increase the height of the sea level.  Due to this, the low-lying countries of the world will disappear under the sea.

Hence the harmful effects of Bitcoin mining pose a serious threat to our ecosystem.

[_BlackStar]

-snip-
Hence the harmful effects of Bitcoin mining pose a serious threat to our ecosystem.

I'm not really sure the impact will be as complex as you describe, then mining shouldn't be allowed in the first place. The threat to the ecosystem being talked about seems only to scare the world into considering bitcoin as one of those things that is not environmentally friendly. Maybe the impact is true if all mining projects require electricity generated from fuel and coal, but I think the impact will be greatly minimized with renewable energy.

With renewable energy, I think the environmental impact is very much minimized and I think some bitcoin mining projects have adopted it instead of just relying on electricity generated through common energy sources like fuel and coal.

[woez]

Both the EU and the US are discussing new crypto regulations. One of their agendas is, again, the crypto economy's impact on the environment.

It is good to see that people are aware of the problems Bitcoin mining is causing and that the crypto community is looking for solutions to make it greener. It would be very important if Bitcoin miners would find a way to lower their electricity costs. However, one thing is for sure - Bitcoin cannot be considered the greenest currency out there.

If we look at the Chinese mining industry, where most Bitcoin mines operate, they must offset the costs of running their operations. Therefore, they have an added incentive to become a mini power plant.

The clean power they produce is fed back into the grid and sold as carbon credits to companies that do not have the ability to offset their emissions or purchase sufficient renewable energy credits. This in turn encourages all of these companies to adopt renewable energy or other carbon reduction or offset programs.

It looks like this is one of the attempts and a hot issue in the future to make it look much greener to Bitcoin miners now that renewable energy is becoming more affordable.

[Pmalek]

It would be very important if Bitcoin miners would find a way to lower their electricity costs.

When you say costs, you are thinking of consumption. Like any technology that evolves and improves, future ASIC miners will provide more hash power with lower energy requirements. That's how you decrease total consumption.   

If we look at the Chinese mining industry, where most Bitcoin mines operate...

Not anymore. That's a thing of the past. Mining bitcoin is no longer allowed by the Chinese government. Big players have reallocated to the US, Russia, Kazakhstan, and other nations that can provide affordable electricity.

It looks like this is one of the attempts and a hot issue in the future to make it look much greener to Bitcoin miners now that renewable energy is becoming more affordable.

Bitcoin is already using plenty of clean and renewable energy in areas where that is possible. If not, like any other industry, mining companies will use what is available and what is cheap.

[o_e_l_e_o]

2. If energy prices are this high it’s more profitable to give energy to the grid than to mine Bitcoin with it for energy producers.

This is not always the case. Many jurisdictions and companies pay fixed rates for electricity that they buy from consumers, such as from household solar, and the rates are often abysmal - a tiny fraction of the cost the consumer pays to buy electricity. Often it will be more profitable to use any excess electricity you generate at home to mine bitcoin than to sell it back for a cent or two per kWh.

However, one thing is for sure - Bitcoin cannot be considered the greenest currency out there.

You sure about that? Want to compare the environmental impact of the US dollar, from printing, moving, handling, etc., through to the electricity for banks, call centers, ATMs, etc., through to the military industrial complex which is built around maintaining its status?

[danadc]

I think that the people who are worrying a lot about contamination are the ones who have previously done much more damage than those who are starting to do the mining exercise, everything was triggered by Elon Musk after having spoken so badly about Bitcoin, then awareness has been after the largest have torn the environment to pieces, currently only those who are doing mining are the most persecuted, by governments and now by environmental entities, if so, then those who have truly paid harmed the environment, which are not the ones right now, they have to be the others who have no conscience.

[Anonylz]

Time and time again, different articles have shown that mining is not harmful to the environment as most of the media tries to make it look.
If for any reason they are able to ban btc mining. It still won't change anything or make the climate more better, btc mining is one part, what about other sectors whose activities also contribute to environmental pollution, what will happen to them?

[tadamichi]

This is not always the case. Many jurisdictions and companies pay fixed rates for electricity that they buy from consumers, such as from household solar, and the rates are often abysmal - a tiny fraction of the cost the consumer pays to buy electricity. Often it will be more profitable to use any excess electricity you generate at home to mine bitcoin than to sell it back for a cent or two per kWh.

Yup, ik about this. I don’t really include these cases, because we’re kind of dealing with distorted incentives here. In the beginning of the push for renewables the rates were actually pretty high, so even electricity that wasn’t really needed was given to the grid. And now over time we’re seeing the opposite development happening, abysmal rates and no incentive to really help the grid out.

It’s just another display of the brokenness of central planning that even during sky high electricity rates, it’s the brokenness of the planning that is preventing more energy to be put on the market, which be reducing prices for everyone to some extent. And even during crisis no adjustment has been made.

These smaller producers are not really given access to the free market the same way as the big industrial energy producers. So free market incentives can’t play out in this case, they should rather mine Bitcoin than getting severely underpaid due to the incompetence of government.

[Nhazwrath]

Lemme know when they successfully ban The Pirate Bay.  you know the one,   that just keeps coming back.


When that happens.   then I might start paying more attention to people trying to ban bitcoin

[Hispo]

I think mining will not get banned because that would be quite difficult to enforce in most scenarios, besides even if mining gets banned in a country with an important concentration of hashrate, it would translate into a migration of that hashrate to somewhere else. I believe the governments in the developed countries will apply heavier taxes and restrictions to miners or push them to go fully green or carbon neutral in order to operate their mining farms.

Most of the enforcing agencies are aware Bitcoin cannot be stopped easily so they would rather to at least profit from the mining in their territories, while pushing to a reduction of carbon footprint.

[pooya87]

Lemme know when they successfully ban The Pirate Bay.  you know the one,   that just keeps coming back.
When that happens.   then I might start paying more attention to people trying to ban bitcoin

You are confusing "banning bitcoin" with "banning bitcoin mining". Nobody can ban bitcoin because it is decentralized and based on peer to peer network that can never be banned. But a mining farm that is extremely hard to move or hide which has a fixed location and relies on a bigger than regular household electrical source is easy to find and shut down.

They want to do the later. And they can easily do that in their own jurisdiction (not globally). For example a couple of years ago one of these Asian countries (I forgot which one) banned mining and then seized hundreds of ASICs. Then they used heavy machines (trucks, etc.) to destroy them in the middle of the street. That action didn't do anything to bitcoin mining as a whole, just in that country.

[bbc.reporter]

Bottom line is some countries may ban bitcoin mining but it will definitely not be because of "fears of climate change" even if they insist on this being the reason. They will only ban bitcoin mining when they face an energy crisis which Europe and to some extent US are facing it these days which is why we are seeing an increased number of discussions about this matter!

It is worth mentioning that China banned bitcoin mining because they were also facing an energy crisis and it didn't solve a thing considering the fact that China's electricity usage continued growing like before, it didn't even have a small drop!

Because the decision to mine or to not mine is already being handled economically by itself. Banning mining because of facing an energy crisis is virtue signalling at best.

1. It’s already insanity to mine Bitcoin from the grid in Europe with skyrocketing energy prices for both industrial and private consumers, it was unprofitable before and even more now.

2. If energy prices are this high it’s more profitable to give energy to the grid than to mine Bitcoin with it for energy producers.

It’s like a self-regulating system that doesn’t take energy from where it’s too scarce, so bans won’t solve anything again like in china. It’s just another example of the incompetence of central authorities to handle crisis. They rather just use it for blame games against unwanted technologies and use arguments that sound logical on a surface level to fool 90% of people. Taking the most incompetent decisions just to maintain an image of competence to the public. Wasting time on irrelevant to the problem issues, so the public can feel like something is being done, while being distracted from actual solutions to the problem. Almost like they understand psychology really well.

However, how can it be just virtue signalling? The problem of the costs and low supply is very real and it might destroy their economy. This is not a problem where the government can say it will fix without really fixing it. This is not a problem that they can ignore. They really need to fix it. Will bitcoin fix this?

Also, I agree that decision to mine and not to mine will be handled economically, however, for some miners, this problem might be a decision of to steal electricity and not to steal electrcity.

[o_e_l_e_o]

And now over time we’re seeing the opposite development happening, abysmal rates and no incentive to really help the grid out.

It's unforgivable really that there will be excess electricity being generated while simultaneously there are planned outages and power cuts. Government incompetence at its finest.

This does tie back in to bitcoin mining being used as a demand response system for a 100% renewable grid as I mentioned earlier. If there is a surge in energy demand, you can burn more coal or gas, but you can't make anymore sunlight or wind for your renewable generators. So in times of excess, you have bitcoin miners working away, using up all the excess power being produced and paying the energy company for it. Bitcoin miners get cheap energy, energy companies don't have to dump excess energy and earn nothing for it, win-win. Then in times of high demand, the energy companies can pay the bitcoin miners to turn off their ASICs, allowing the grid to divert that energy usage to elsewhere so there are no outages or power cuts. Again, win-win. This is already happening successfully in Texas and elsewhere.

For example a couple of years ago one of these Asian countries (I forgot which one) banned mining and then seized hundreds of ASICs.

It was Malaysia, but the equipment was seized due to being run on stolen electricity, not because they banned mining: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/19/malaysian-police-steamroll-1point25-million-worth-of-bitcoin-mining-rigs.html

[Gallar]

many countries are still doubting or even rejecting bitcoin.
because there are many fears, to make bitcoin a currency.

Bitcoin miners are actually in my country sometimes their profits are monitored, maybe because they are afraid of that person's progress.

I hope that in the future governments will open their minds and hearts to look at or appreciate bitcoin.

[Pmalek]

Lemme know when they successfully ban The Pirate Bay.  you know the one,   that just keeps coming back.

It's not really the same thing, and it's not about banning your ability to send Bitcoin from one address to the other or from one person/country/continent to a different one. When thepiratebay.org goes down and if all their mirror sites go down, they are gone until someone brings them online again. You can't bring down Bitcoin in that way because there is no reliance on a single site/service/wallet etc. The way to take out Bitcoin is by attacking the technology and infrastructure that secures it, confirms your transactions, and generates new blocks. They might not go to those lengths, but it's the best way to achieve your sinister plans.

A coordinated confiscation of hundreds of thousands of ASICs is not something you can easily replace just like that. They are not jars of water that you simply fill up and put in place of the old ones. Even that would take some time. Those ASICs need to be manufactured first to replace the old ones.

It was Malaysia, but the equipment was seized due to being run on stolen electricity, not because they banned mining

Still, they wanted to send a strong signal by doing that. Seized goods can be auctioned off unless it's something illegal like drugs. The Malaysian government used the steamrollers as symbolism of what they think of the industry. Personal opinion, of course.   

[Franctoshi]

Though that the government has been looking for various ways to stop or ban Bitcoin and its mining activities ,but I don't think at this stage of awareness and adoption of Bitcoin, that this is gonna be that easy for them to completely ban mining. Why?, This is because it's not gonna be easy to have a global ban on Bitcoin mining happen at same time. reason, this country may find reason to ban Bitcoin mining while the other country may see reason to adopt or see an opportunity to continue mining. Taking for instance,  China banned mining while US took the opportunity and Increase their mining firms.

[Pmalek]

Why?, This is because it's not gonna be easy to have a global ban on Bitcoin mining happen at same time. reason, this country may find reason to ban Bitcoin mining while the other country may see reason to adopt or see an opportunity to continue mining. Taking for instance,  China banned mining while US took the opportunity and their mining firms.

Such measures don't happen over night, you are right. They are spread out over time and take years if done systematically. Let's say that's the direction the US takes, who could follow them? The UK is the obvious culprit. Maybe they get France on board and Germany. The last three are not that important in mining circles, but they are in global politics. Once you do that, politicians do what they do best. Intimidation, demands, blackmail...   

Oh, you want a loan to fix your economy? Well that is going to be difficult when bitcoin is being mined in your country. Maybe there is something you can do for us first...

[Nhazwrath]

Lemme know when they successfully ban The Pirate Bay.  you know the one,   that just keeps coming back.
When that happens.   then I might start paying more attention to people trying to ban bitcoin

You are confusing "banning bitcoin" with "banning bitcoin mining". Nobody can ban bitcoin because it is decentralized and based on peer to peer network that can never be banned. But a mining farm that is extremely hard to move or hide which has a fixed location and relies on a bigger than regular household electrical source is easy to find and shut down.

They want to do the later. And they can easily do that in their own jurisdiction (not globally). For example a couple of years ago one of these Asian countries (I forgot which one) banned mining and then seized hundreds of ASICs. Then they used heavy machines (trucks, etc.) to destroy them in the middle of the street. That action didn't do anything to bitcoin mining as a whole, just in that country.

bitcoin is mining.  without the miners there is no functional bitcoin.   and china has been stomping on the miners for awhile.   hasn't stopped them.  only stopped large scale mining.   bitcoin functions just fine with small scale mining.

[Mauser]

I think that not much is changing in the near future when it comes to mining and clean energy sources. There are only a few countries who banned crypto mining and right now the world is focusing on other things than climate change. When it comes to climate change politicians are only willing to invest money and time when the economy is in a boom. And right now we are facing recessions and rising inflation rates. Fossil energy sources are cheaper than alternative energy, so a country can only afford to a certain extend to go green. Maybe at the end of next year things will go back to normal again and the world will focus more on climate change. But right now the focus is to reduce gas as much as possible and increase nuclear energy. Also crypto mining became very popular in the last 2 years, I don't think politicians want to anger voters even more.