COMPUTERS DOING BITCOIN MINING EAT A LOT OF ENERGY
This is sort of surprising. But maybe not that much? Given the scale of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin’s market footprint, maybe really not that much. Gold, Silver and other precious metals share several aspects with the very new in comparison Bitcoin mining. Libertarians can’t get enough of any of them. Their value is totally a manifestation constructed by society. But they all also need to be mined. Precious metals are mined out of planet Earth. Bitcoin is also “mined” in the virtual realm. But a study this week appearing in Nature Sustainability shows that Bitcoin “mining” takes even more energy. Way more than giant scale digging in the dirt. So what does that really mean?
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ALL DATA MINING ON PLANET EARTH EATS AS MUCH ENERGY AS A COUNTRY
Is this astonishing? Well, maybe just a little. But only because no one has really looked at the numbers and compared them until now. Obviously, researchers have focused on Bitcoin’s massive energy needs for a number of years now. But now we have a scaled comparison that really makes the numbers clear. And the scale is huge. The calculations that computers dedicated to mining do require a lot of power. Cryptocurrencies including Bitcion, Ethereum, Litecoin and Monero together need mining power that is equal to a small to medium sized country. Now that’s a lot of power consumption. Data mining alone eats all that power.
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WILL A CRYPTOCURRENCY GO GREEN AND CAPTURE THAT INVESTOR MARKET?
Just over the last 30 months, the study found that crypto mining’s energy needs have grown exponentially. But this is despite the crypto market becoming increasingly volatile. So the energy consumed by datamining is equal to that of, say, the country of Denmark. So the emissions of carbon dioxide every year resulting from datamining are 3-15 million tons. Data mining in China is very carbon intensive. So in comparison, data “mining” in Canada produces just a quarter as much carbon. But data mining is here to stay. It will also grow far larger in its needs. So Canada’s hydropower compared to China’s coal produced power is important to recognize.
Maybe there’s a cryptocurrency out there that will go Green before the rest? There’s a market for that. Some people are only interested in Green investing. And now that we know about Bitcoin mining and its energy thirst, more people will be. But how many of them love the crypto market? There’s only one way to find out. But whoever does, will create something truly new. A client investor group with no borders. That’s what the planet earth needs! A Green Crypto Coin that invests in the Earth. I’m in!