Does Bitcoin Mining Damage The Environment? | by Raveen Chawla | Coinmonks | Dec, 2022

Yes, Bitcoin mining damage the environment. Every US dollar worth of Bitcoin mined results in climate damage of 35 cents. Bitcoin mining is an extremely energy-intensive process that affects the ability of governments throughout the world to decrease their dependence on fossil fuels.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred from one person to another in the network. The Bitcoin transaction can be verified with the help of network nodes via cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger known as the blockchain.

The cryptocurrency was invented in 2008 by a group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Currency was in use in 2009 when it was released as open-source software.

There are 9 countries that have completely banned the use of Bitcoin while another 15 have implicitly banned it. However, few governments have used cryptocurrency to some extent. Countries like El Salvador have officially declared cryptocurrency as legal tender.

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The proof of work crypto mining is created to consume a drastic amount of energy. The process utilizes several millions of computing devices to solve the complex rather meaningless problem.

In the algorithm of Bitcoin, a computer or mining device that quickly solves a problem is rewarded with a coin or specific crypto.

If the reward is high, the intentions of the miners are to quickly mine and solve the problem in enhancing the chances of winning the reward.

As more mining machines try to win the competition, the difficulty of the problem increases, and the electricity consumption in mining also increases.

There has been an exponential increase in the use of electricity by crypto miners.

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Crypto mining uses electricity partially produced by gas and coal-fired power plants. Upon burning, natural gas and coal produce greenhouse gases which result in a rise in the temperature of Earth’s near-surface air.

As of 2022, Bitcoin mining is responsible for 0.1% of the greenhouse gas emissions of the world. The next environmental impact is air pollution due to coal-fired electricity production and third is the electronic waste because of the short life of the mining equipment for Bitcoin.

Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum consumes less electricity. According to the estimates by Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) for 2022, Bitcoin mining consumes almost 100 TWh per year which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of Egypt.

Another study conducted from 2016 to 2021, stated that every US dollar worth of Bitcoin mined results in climate damage of 35 cents, which is much higher than the energy consumption by the gasoline industry and beef industries.

The annual electronic waste by Bitcoin was estimated to be more than 30,000 metric tonnes for 2021. Every single Bitcoin mining results in electronic waste of 270 to 380 grams. Moreover, the average life of crypto mining devices was around 1.3 years. Unlike the majority of computing hardware, the used application-specific integrated circuits have no other use apart from crypto mining.

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Decreasing the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining is difficult. The possible remedies can be mining Bitcoin only where and when there is a sufficient amount of clean electricity. Several policymakers have imposed restrictions or bans on crypto mining.

If the right actions are not taken currently to limit the growth of this industry, then we might not be able to fulfill the objectives of the Paris agreement.

Local and state officials can enforce noise and pollution ordinances so that there should not be more economic development dollar utilization on the wrong promises for long-term jobs, create careful zoning codes, and develop tariffs to ensure the protection of prevailing ratepayers.

Utility regulators can persuade the power purchase agreements, establish protective electricity rates or system benefits charges to make sure the speculative mining operations so that there should not be any trail of standard assets, proper assessment of utility plans for energy procurement for Bitcoin mining facilities and make sure that the mining facilities do not increase electricity consumption and cost.

Utilities can create electricity rates to ensure protection against stranded properties. It makes sure that there should not be increased power capacity to accomplish crypto mining load, and expense rate enough to completely safeguard the prevailing rate pears from the enhanced marginal production cost.

Grid operators can create comprehensive rules and guidance related to the interconnection of high-density loads, and study the implications of crypto mining on congestion, resource adequacy, wholesale market prices to reduce the impact of crypto mining on other clients.

Environment regulators should impose affirmative regulation to reduce local health as well as the environmental implications of Bitcoin mining on the nearby communities.

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1. How much waste does Bitcoin mining make?

Every single Bitcoin mining results in electronic waste of 270 to 380 grams

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