Its own energy consumption and the environmental pollution it generates have tarnished Bitcoin's image. The facilities required for this payment system to operate produce more CO2 emissions than many countries in the world.
Such large energy consumption is accompanied by the infrastructure necessary to carry out the mining process.
If there is one topic that has become 'fashionable' this past year, it has been the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies. Also, if there is something that has been talked about this last month, it has been the footprint that Bitcoin leaves on the environment, one of the most famous currencies and created in 2008 that involves a huge energy consumption.
How does a digital currency affect the environment?
Here there are no physical coins or bills, everything is online. The action that damages the environment is called 'mining'. The world of cryptocurrencies is based on a decentralized computer network. Such a large expenditure on energy comes with the infrastructure needed to carry out the mining process, using supercomputers that require a powerful cooling system to solve complex calculations.
According to the Centre for Alternative Finance at Cambridge University (UK) and its new tools for visualizing global Bitcoin mining, if instead of a resource it were a state, Bitcoin's electricity consumption would place it 27th on the global list in 2019, passing countries such as Sweden and Ukraine.
An environmental footprint that spans the globe
The truth is that the world of cryptocurrencies travels the entire planet. In recent months, Argentina has consumed more energy in Bitcoin mining than the entire South American country in total other actions. According to a study by the University of Cambridge itself, energy consumption by the Bitcoin network reached 148 terawatts per hour on May 10, a figure that is above the 120 terawatts consumed by all of Argentina.
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" In Iran, for example, Bitcoin mining is banned for four months. Earlier this year, the Iranian state already warned that Bitcoin mining was causing nationwide blackouts, or else they were helping to make them happen. This time, according to President Hassan Rouhani, they are not going to risk it now that summer is coming and until September 22 they are banning mining to avoid power outages in the country.BREAKING: Iran has banned all #Bitcoin mining until September 22.
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) May 26, 2021
Yeah, good luck with that.
Elon Musk will not accept Bitcoins
As if it were a science fiction movie, almost two months ago Elon Musk (co-founder and director of Tesla) opened the possibility of accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for the purchase of his cars. Now he no longer does, justifying his decision on the fact that there is an increasing use of fossil fuels, especially coal.
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"Energy usage trend over past few months is insane https://t.co/E6o9s87trw pic.twitter.com/bmv9wotwKe
— Elon Musk () May 13, 2021
Musk, wants to put an end to the paradox of selling his electric cars to avoid carbon emissions, allowing a highly polluting alternative as a payment method. However, there are other alternative cryptocurrencies and they seem to be more environmentally friendly, as is the case of Ethereum, the second most valuable virtual currency in the market, will it ever be able to position itself as high as Bitcoin?