Technology
Is Bitcoin Mining Bad for the Environment?
Consumers and regulators should be aware of the potential carbon footprint of bitcoin mining.
The mining industry isn’t a beacon for environmental altruism. And most people don’t associate bitcoin mining with actual mining or any significant environmental risk. In fact, I’d wager most people thought the title of this article was a joke. That is partly because most people don’t understand what bitcoin actually is and what it entails.
Yet the emerging success of bitcoin presents a surprisingly real risk from the ‘excavation’ of cryptocurrencies. And, ironically, this risk has ties that reach all the way back to physical mines.
The simplified explanation of the conflict
For the unfamiliar, there are two ways you usually get a bitcoin.
- You buy them.
- You mine them.
The latter is how new bitcoins are born. They are discovered through a complicated math problem that renews every 10 minutes. It’s akin to playing, “What number am I thinking of.” Except you are working with a 64-digit number. Each mining session becomes a race. Everyone tries to get to the number first. Whoever does, gets the…
