Blockchain News
transaction consumes enough electricity to
power a home for weeks. Bitcoin’s surge last
year, that saw the flagship cryptocurrency hit
nearly $20,000 all-time high before its value
started dropping, has led to sharp increase in
consumed electricity. aspects” of cryptocurrency use should also
be addressed. Per his words, we need more
regulations “whether it’s against fraud,
whether it’s against environmental harms,
whether it’s against the use of bitcoin to
foster terrorism”.
In fact, research reports claim that bitcoin’s
total energy consumption from last year was
superior to the annual usage of 159 countries.
Per that same research, if bitcoin mining
electricity consumption keeps increasing at
its current rate, it will consume all of the
world’s energy by February 2020. Is bitcoin mining that bad?
Taking all of this into account, in an interview
with Business Insider, California Rep. Ro
Khanna argued bitcoin mining should be
regulated and confronted with taxes. He stated:
“You could have environmental
regulations of what could be used
or a tax on the use of the mines
that are going into the bitcoin, so
that if they have externalities that
they’re causing the environment,
that they have to pay a tax on that.”
According to Khanna, a tax on bitcoin
mining would “provide a disincentive” to
miners, presumably because it would cut into
their profit margins. He added that bitcoin
miners “need to be paying a price on it”.
Not stopping there, Khanna further said
regulations shouldn’t stop at a carbon tax to stifle
the environmental effects of cryptocurrency
mining. To him, the “significant criminal
According to Digiconomist, bitcoin’s current
estimated annual electricity consumption is
of 49 TWh. The amount of energy consumed
keeps on increasing, but this doesn’t mean
cryptocurrencies are completely destroying
our environment.
Cryptocurrency miners use a lot of energy,
and are incentivized to search for cheap,
renewable energy sources that will cut their
costs by as much as possible. Moreover,
as covered by Core Media, they can take
advantage of excess energy, as is the case with
Russian energy company EuroSibEnergo.
Although bitcoin mining still consumes a lot
of energy – part of it generated by burning
coal – the Independent claims old-fashioned
cash can be worse. This, as zinc needs to be
mined to produce coins, and zinc still needs
to be transported to a smelter, purified,
and moved to the mint before it ends up in
our pockets. Estimates point this might’ve
produced 107 million pounds of carbon
dioxide over the years, just from pennies in
the US.
Francisco Memoria
[email protected]
Core Magazine
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