Research results that the relative environmental load due to bit coin mining exceeds beef production and is unsustainable
The damage to the environment caused by mining of the virtual currency
Economic estimation of Bitcoin mining's climate damages demonstrates closer resemblance to digital crude than digital gold | Scientific Reports
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-18686-8
Technology: University of New Mexico researchers find Bitcoin mining is environmentally unsustainable | EurekAlert!
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/966192
Mining Bitcoin Climate Impact Similar to Beef, Crude Production - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-29/mining-bitcoin-climate-impact-similar-to-beef-crude-production
Bitcoin's Climate Impact Is Bigger Than Beef Farming – And It's Only Getting Worse : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/bitcoins-climate-impact-is-bigger-than-beef-farming-and-its-only-getting-worse
Bitcoin is the No. 1 virtual currency with a market capitalization of over 50 trillion yen at the time of writing the article , and in April 2022, the mining volume reached 19 million BTC . On the other hand, since Bitcoin uses a mechanism called ' Proof of Work (PoW) ' to approve transactions on the blockchain, it has become a problem that mining consumes a huge amount of power and has a large environmental impact. . For this reason, experts even say that the crash of Bitcoin will slow climate change.
Bitcoin crash scenario 'death spiral' hopes and experts to delay climate change - GIGAZINE
Therefore, a research team led by Benjamin Jones, an associate professor of economics at the University of New Mexico, calculated the climate damage caused by Bitcoin mining from January 2016 to December 2021 and converted it into an economic cost. We compared the ratio with the market value. As of December 2021, Bitcoin's market capitalization was approximately $960 billion (approximately 110 trillion yen at that rate), and its share of the virtual currency market was 41%.
As a result of the survey, as of 2016, the carbon dioxide emission per bitcoin was 0.9 tons, but in 2021 it was 113 tons per bitcoin, which was actually 126 times higher. In 2021, climate damage equivalent to $ 11,314 (about 1.8 million yen) per bitcoin will occur, and the total climate damage during the investigation period will be equivalent to $ 12 billion (about 1.7 trillion yen). the team said. Furthermore, in May 2020, the climate damage per dollar (about 140 yen) of Bitcoin's market value reached $ 1.56 (about 220 yen), and the climate damage caused by mining exceeded the market value.
Bitcoin's climate damage over the entire survey period was an average of 35% of the market value, and mining a dollar's worth of Bitcoin caused climate damage equivalent to 35 cents (about 50 yen). Bitcoin is sometimes called ' digital gold ' because it is useful as a store of value, but the proportion of 35% is much higher than the 4% of gold mining. It is also higher than beef production (33%) and not much different from natural gas extraction (46%) and crude oil to gasoline production (41%). These figures are relative and do not reflect the total emissions by industry, but they are useful in assessing the sustainability of the industry.
The research team also pointed out that the power consumption of bitcoin mining in 2020 was 75.4 terawatt hours (TWh), which was higher than Austria (69.9 TWh) and Portugal (48.4 TWh) in the same year. ``Bitcoin mining uses a huge amount of electricity, mainly from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas,'' Jones said. 'We found several periods of climate damage,' ``This is very problematic from a sustainability point of view,'' he argues that bitcoin mining is not sustainable.
The plunge in the Bitcoin price in 2022 is forcing miners to operate their machines more efficiently. As a result, greenhouse gas emissions from bitcoin mining are on a downward trend, and the total emissions in 2022 are estimated to be 14.1% lower than in 2021.
In addition, minersare promoting the use of renewable energy sources such as geothermal, hydropower, wind power, and solar power, and the US government also recommends the use of environmentally friendly green energy for the cryptocurrency industry.
The US government recommends the use of green energy for the virtual currency industry with high power consumption, and if it does not improve, it may lead to regulation - GIGAZINE
In September 2022, Ethereum , which ranks second in the market capitalization ranking of virtual currencies, will implement a large-scale update “The Merge” that will reduce power consumption by more than 99%. This is to shift the blockchain system from PoW, which consumes a lot of power, to ' Proof of Stake (PoS) ', and if the same thing is done with Bitcoin, it will lead to a significant reduction in environmental impact. Bitcoin is unlikely to move to PoS, but the research team said, ``If the bitcoin industry shifts the supply route from PoW or does not move to PoS, this kind of digital scarce goods needs to be regulated. and any delay in regulation will likely lead to increased global climate damage.”
What is the large-scale upgrade 'The Merge' that reduces the power consumption of Ethereum by more than 99%? -GIGAZINE
Related Posts:
