We all heard the FUD surrounding the fact that Bitcoin requires a lot of energy to mine. People are reporting that the growth in the Bitcoin network means it will consume more energy than the entire planet provides in just a few years. While I find this absurd since the industry is already switching to renewables, it does bring up a valid point; what is the environmental impact?
As an aside, I do find it interesting that nobody asks how much energy JPMorgan uses running its system. Or the New York Stock Exchange. Or Visa. I can only conclude that the only energy hog on this planet is Bitcoin.
That said, there is always a way to turn lemons into lemonade, or in this case tomatoes.
Cryptomatoes might well be on their way to stores very soon.
This is the new business of Agritechture which uses the heat from Bitcoin mining to grow tomatoes. The company's first yield is a 5 acre greenhouse.
Others have tried to recycle Bitcoin energy waste yet many encountered scaling issues. This is the first project that was able to scale up.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/cryptomatoes-grows-5-acres-of-fruit-from-bitcoin-mining-heat
This is why I am so optimistic about the future. We truly are in the age of innovation. Here is a situation where we see environmental issues being addressed by creating a solution to two problems. While I doubt this will be wide spread (the likelihood of growing tomatoes in Canada in January does not seem likely), it does show the creativity people have.
I keep stressing the importance of decentralization. This is the core concept for the next step in the advancement of the human race. Decentralized platforms enable people to simply take their ideas and put them out there for others to use. Open source means that people can build upon the works of others without the fear of being sued for copyright infringement.
Another advantage I see as we progress towards the Age of Abundance is the fact that, as the money system changes, we will see projects that can help humanity funded. Whereas today, money is controlled by the elite few, with the advent of "Internet money", we see that this realm is becoming decentralized. This bodes well for all those future projects that are going to require financing.
Who knows, maybe someday I will grow zucchini off the heat from my laptop.
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