Is Bitcoin pollution as holy as baby pee?
Bitcoin is said to be polluting, to produce a lot of carbon dioxide and other things.
Well, let’s start from the beginning.
Bitcoin pollutes because of its validation method, called Proof of Work that requires powerful servers. Actual servers, used to create the computational power.
This model for example, one of the models I installed in our mining facilities is called S19Pro. And it consumes 3.15kW. In Italy, 3kW is the average electrical power available for a normal small housing unit. You know when you have the washing machine and the oven working in the same moment and the house goes black-out?
Well, any of those machines consumes like a small-sized apartment at its full capacity.
So, how much is really consuming the crypto-network?
The continuous line is the estimated (real) value is the total power consumption of Bitcoin Hashing-network. At the moment I am writing is around 200 TWh.
Annual consumption of the apartment mentioned earlier is: 3kW x 24 h x 365 days/years = 26.28 GWh, in the assumption that the apartment is fully consuming the total allocated electricity power.
So, following the assumption made until here, Bitcoin consumes almost 1000 times a 3kW apartment fully consuming all day/all night, every day of the year.
All day/All night - Jingle break: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwq-T2CrJRU
And what if adding the Ethereum Blockchain consumption?
290 TWh total among the Bitcoin and the Ethereum Blockchains.
Before making other comparisons, we have to keep in mind one thing. A good part of electricity comes from off-grid areas or areas where electricity would be anyhow wasted or not produced at all. In am particularly referring to hydro-electric power, that in any case would disperse electricity or putting turbines in neutral.
In particular I refer to Icelands and some areas of Asia and Russia. Not all of them. But there I could observe the highest density of off-grid areas.
But let’s get back to bitcoin pollution.
People are pointing their fingers to bitcoin pollution but, banks, intensive breedings, truck transportations?
Bitcoin represents an evolution in the payments, in the monetary democracy and in privacy.
Banks, intensive breedings and trucks represent already a solution from a previous generation.
- Banks with their quantitative easing, fractional reserves and repo market are polluting economic realm.
- Intensive breedings with all hormones and anti-biotic are polluting mankind health.
- Trucks and the resistance to reailways and other less polluting transportations systems are polluting air.
Honestly, I prefer to suffer some pollution from bitcoin that represent a huge evolution if compared to the other cases.
What do you think on that? Do you consider as well that a form of “environmental sacrifice” may be justified from the evolution that this sacrifice may bring?