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Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than most countries, study suggests | Science and technology news
To offset the carbon footprint of mining the leading cryptocurrency, a United Nations report says more than 3.9 billion trees should be planted.
Tuesday 24 October 2023 2.03pm, UK
According to a new report on its harmful environmental impact, Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than most countries.
Mining is the process by which transactions are added and validated on the blockchain, the public ledger cryptocurrencies.
Competing miners compete to use computers to solve complex mathematical puzzles using extremely powerful hardware, receiving new Bitcoins as a reward for their efforts.
In the 2020-2021 period, Bitcoin consumed 173.42 terawatt hours of electricity, enough to rank 27th among the nations, outclassing the likes of Pakistan with a population of over 230 million people.
The resulting carbon footprint was the equivalent of burning 84 billion pounds of coal.
To compensate for this, a study of the United Nations The University found that 3.9 billion trees should be planted, covering an area almost the same as that of Holland, SwissOR Denmark.
Professor Kaveh Madani said: “Technological innovations are often associated with unintended consequences.
“Bitcoin is no exception.”
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Which powers fuel mining and which countries lead the way?
The UN team’s research, published in the journal Earth’s Future, found that Bitcoin mining relies heavily fossil fuels.
During this period, coal made up 45% of the supply mix, followed by natural gas at 21%.
Renewable energies such as solar and wind provided a relatively small percentage of mining electricity uses between 2020 and 2021.
But organizations including the Bitcoin Mining Council – which represents 43% of miners worldwide – argue that this energy-intensive process has since become more environmentally friendly.
Its data suggests that in the first six months of 2023, 59.9% of the electricity used by its members came from sustainable sources. However, these figures are difficult to verify and only represent less than half of the overall network.
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At the time of the UN study in 2021, China was by far the largest Bitcoin mining nation, but has since been overtaken by the United States after Beijing launched an aggressive crackdown on the practice.
Together, the 10 countries that mined the most Bitcoin were responsible for 92% of the climate footprint.
Image: Countries ranked by the amount of electricity their Bitcoin mining operations used in 2020-21
“Our findings should not discourage the use of digital currencies,” added Professor Madani.
“They should instead encourage us to invest in regulatory interventions and technological advances that improve the efficiency of the global financial system without harming the environment.”
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Are there alternatives?
Some blockchains have already moved away from mining in favor of greener alternatives.
The Ethereum network, the second largest after Bitcoin, made miners obsolete in September 2022 after an ambitious upgrade.
Instead, new transactions are approved by people who voluntarily lock their cryptocurrency, and according to the Ethereum Foundation, this approach uses 99% less energy.
Greenpeace lobbied for Bitcoin miners to follow suit, but its calls fell on deaf ears.