In the last decade, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin gained global traction. They have been in mainstream discussion for a long time. It is an excellent point of discussion for people in the finance domain.
But do you know there are more haters of bitcoin than lovers?
Well, bitcoin is getting attention not only because of its advantages but also because of its multiple disadvantages.
If you are unclear about how bitcoin came into the picture and about the benefits of bitcoin, you can look into platforms like bitcoin profit to get more details.
Is Bitcoin Bad for the Environment 2023?
There are multiple benefits of bitcoin. The way it promises decentralization, the free access to the currency, the need for less regulation, and anonymity in usage makes bitcoin the best choice.
But, there are many haters of bitcoin. They emphasize the fact that bitcoins are polluting the environment. In this article, we will try to learn about bitcoin's sustainability. We will also throw light on how it is impacting the environment negatively.
You may also ReadWhy is Bitcoin Bad for the Environment?
Before we understand whether bitcoin is good or bad for the environment, it is important to know about its working. The ledger of bitcoin is decentralized. This simply means that multiple authorities control it.
The bitcoin ledger is updated every single second by people who are called miners.
The main work of these miners is to use a computer to solve high-level mathematical problems. Thus, miners must keep mining the bitcoin for the transaction to take place.
In exchange for the mining, they also get fractions of bitcoin as their reward.
In the last few years, the price of bitcoin has reached an all-time high, and the attractiveness of bitcoin mining has increased. A high level of energy consumption takes place in the process of running the computer. Miners get solid revenue from bitcoin.
Thus, many more people are joining the process of bitcoin mining.
Thus, more and more energy consumption takes place. As per a report, the total impact of bitcoin on the environment stands at 117.1 TWh/Year.
This number is much higher than the total energy consumption in countries like the Netherlands and Pakistan.
Bitcoin Vs Visa: Energy consumption
Many reports have suggested that bitcoin uses energy much higher than Visa energy consumption.
For example, a single translation in bitcoin uses 1200 kWh of energy, while a transaction in Visa uses only 148 kWh of energy.
Thus, there is a huge difference in energy consumption between bitcoin and Visa. The haters of bitcoin are using these data to showcase the long-term impact of bitcoin on energy consumption.
Bitcoin and non-renewable energy sources
You must have heard about the buzz about the hardware e-waste due to bitcoin. However, the impact of bitcoin is not only limited to power consumption.
People say that bitcoin uses non-renewable sources of energy for mining, and the hazard can be huge.
As per a report, more than 70% of the mining facilities are at places that rely on coal for energy generation. Thus, it not only causes huge consumption of non-renewable energy, but it is also causing environmental pollution.
Bitcoin and e-waste
Since the hype around bitcoin mining and rewards is rising, many mining computers are being produced. Compared to regular computers, mining computers uses more amount of energy.
This hardware is not just great energy consumers.
That is also causing high levels of electronic waste. You need to understand that bitcoin mining is so intense that the computers become obsolete within a year or 1.5 years. Thus, in the long run, it will lead to more e-waste, making it difficult to manage the menace.
Can bitcoin become sustainable?
Now that people worldwide are accepting bitcoin, people want to know whether bitcoin can become sustainable.
The truth is that countries, as well as agencies around the world, are making an effort to make bitcoin sustainable.
There are many initiatives like the Crypto Climate Accord to make bitcoin sustainable. But now bitcoin is causing environmental issues, and there is no denying fact to that.
Jitendra Vaswani
Jitendra Vaswani is a Digital Marketing Practitioner and renowned international keynote speaker who has embraced the digital nomad lifestyle as he travels around the world. He founded two successful websites, BloggersIdeas.com & Digital Marketing Agency DigiExe of which his success stories have expanded to authoring "Inside A Hustler's Brain : In Pursuit of Financial Freedom" (20,000 copies sold worldwide) and contributing to "International Best Selling Author of Growth Hacking Book 2". Jitendra designed workshops for over 10000+ professionals in Digital marketing across continents; with intentions ultimately anchored towards creating an impactable difference by helping people build their dream business online. Jitendra Vaswani is a high-powered investor with an impressive portfolio that includes Imagestation and Newsmartwave . To learn more about his investments, Find him on Linkedin, Twitter, & Facebook.
