How Bad Is Bitcoin? By DailyCoin

If you are recycling, choosing reusable or sustainable products, and you’ve already changed your driving habits, it probably means you’re environmentally conscious. However, if you use cryptocurrency, you might want to start questioning your “eco-friendliness,” as more reports are informing crypto-enthusiasts about digital assets’ potential harm to the environment.

Digital assets are created through a high-powered process of mining, where computer systems compete to solve puzzles and create blocks (called mining). It’s an electricity-intensive digital activity that burns a considerable amount of electricity, not to mention the energy-consuming transactions.

According to an article by academics Liana Badea and Mariana Claudia Mungiu-Pupăzan, cryptocurrency production harms the environment in two ways:

• computer power consumption: computing, networking, and cooling
• disposal of electronic waste: mining equipment for production becomes worn out in about 1.5 years and thus turns into electronic waste.

On the other hand, since technology advances at a rapid speed, our need to consume more energy to keep the technology running increases too.

According to some sources, Bitcoin uses more renewable energy than any other industry. It’s considered clean and doesn’t produce greenhouse gas emissions. In some countries like Sweden, there are companies that use heating produced by mining Bitcoin to heat greenhouses (known as genesis mining).

“Bitcoin is a digital asset, minted from energy. It is stored digital energy. That is why it has value. Bitcoin’s electricity consumption is not a fault – it’s a feature,”
writes Dominic Frisby in Money Week.

Cryptocurrency Compared to Other Industries

DailyCoin had an exclusive interview with Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings, one of the largest Bitcoin mining operations in North America that is functioning at comparatively low energy costs. By the end of 2022, Marathon Digital Holdings plans to be 100% carbon neutral.

During another interview, DailyCoin discussed environmental issues caused by cryptocurrency with Alex de Vries, founder of Digiconomist, a platform that analyzes the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies.

In the report “Bitcoin Net Zero,” Ross Stevens and Nic Carter made a chart that compares the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining with other industries. According to the report, in 2020, aviation transportation consumed 4,030 TWh, over 70 times more energy than Bitcoin. Air conditioning and electric fans consumed 2,000 TWh compared to Bitcoin at 62 TWh.

“Today we are at 49 TWh on an annualized basis. So we’ve actually seen a decline in energy use in the past year. Part of that is because of the crypto mining prohibition in China. There, energy production for Bitcoin was predominantly coal-based, and if this was shut off and replaced with mostly renewable energy like in North America, then…