The FUD of Bitcoin Mining Accelerating Climate Change

To date, there are an estimated 1 million Bitcoin miners around the world, consuming a very considerable amount of energy. The claims that Bitcoin mining would affect global warming go back more than a decade, but it wasn’t until the boom in 2017 that large media outlets began to take note.

This study published in Nature estimated that Bitcoin mining alone could push global warming above two degrees celsius. That is a profound statement, considering a two degree increase would result in nearly all major coastal cities would face significant flooding risks.

The estimations are heavily rooted in the historical growth of other popular technologies such as electricity or dishwashers as displayed above. However, it is very highly unlikely that Bitcoin would follow a curve like this. For starters, it’s now common knowledge that Bitcoin should not be a standard transaction system on a global scale.

Rather, Bitcoin has been accepted as a store of value and a hedge against inflation. Other cryptocurrency methods such as stablecoins have been suggested to fit the mold for daily consumer transactions. To continue, the plot below shows the cumulative CO2 emissions if Bitcoin were indeed to follow the growth trends of aggressive technologies as displayed above.

Graphs like this can spark a lot of fear, and a lot of news headlines. However, it’s important to zoom out of the findings of a research paper and examine the trends as a whole. While it’s true that Bitcoin has phases of high adoption and hype, the general growth rate is much more moderate over time. Not just that, but the projected 1 billion transactions per day in the study is literally impossible since Bitcoin maxes out at a few hundred thousand transactions per day.

One more faulty assumption within the article is that each Bitcoin transaction requires the same amount of energy as mining a new Bitcoin block. Again, a single block can contain more than three thousand transactions — the terminology simply cannot be interchangeable.

Assumptions and even misinterpretations such as these need to be accounted for prior to making sweeping claims about a revolutionary technology. Bitcoin is not a standard payment system, it is a store of value that has intricate technological aspects that need to be addressed. This is especially true when comparing Bitcoin to standard payment methods as we will see next.

Source: https://levelup.gitconnected.com/the-fud-of-bitcoin-mining-accelerating-climate-change-f2fea026eed8?source=rss——-8—————–cryptocurrency