Bitcoin impact is under scrutiny
The Internet Archive is defending its digital library in court today
Of note: Sen. Cynthia Lummis, one of the crypto industry’s biggest backers on Capitol Hill, sits on the subcommittee. It could make for a fiery hearing. Bitcoin change is under scrutiny Driving the news: Sen. Ed Markey will lead the hearing in the EPW Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, his office tells Axios.
Bitcoin change impact is under scrutiny
Bitcoin’s huge carbon footprint has people asking whether cryptocurrency can go green. Bitcoin advocates say it can switch to renewable energy. Others are instead developing entirely new types of cryptocurrency that are less energy hungry. Guest host Shereen Marisol Meraji talks with Ludwig Siegele, technology editor at The Economist, who gives his assessment of the challenges of making cryptocurrency environmentally friendly. Claim: Crypto mining relies on renewable energy. By our first sustainability criterion that “the trend of the estimated climate damages per BTC mined should not be increasing, as the industry matures,” BTC fails. There is a clear upward trajectory in per coin estimated climate damages, as seen from the non-linear trend line in Fig. 2A. Rather than declining as the industry matures, each new BTC coin mined is, on average, associated with increasing climate damages.
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Crypto advocates argue that the proof-of-work process is becoming more energy efficient: that more and more miners are turning to renewable energy sources like wind, solar, or hydropower, as opposed to coal or natural gas. However, one peer-reviewed study from earlier this year shows the opposite: that the Bitcoin network’s use of renewable energy dropped from an average of 42% in 2020 to 25% in August 2021. Researchers believe that China’s crackdown on crypto, where hydropower-driven mining operations used to be plentiful, was the primary catalyst of this decrease. Claim: Christmas lights use more electricity than Bitcoin. MORE: Venmo to let users buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin in its appMusk's decision to hold onto rather than sell the company's Bitcoin investments -- as well as a recent tweet from Musk that seemed to endorse Bitcoin's positive environmental impact -- has sowed confusion on the motives for his sudden reversal.
Bitcoin climate under scrutiny
From a climate damages perspective, the researchers said bitcoin is more of a “digital crude” than gold, which has climate costs of just 4% its value. Crypto Fear and Greed Index hits highest level since Bitcoin’s all-time high Ethereum managed to pull off a storybook success story this year with a software upgrade called “The Merge.” Before the highly anticipated event, Ethereum developers promised that The Merge would drastically cut the blockchain’s enormous hunger for electricity. But over years of delays, crypto critics and environmental advocates shrugged The Merge off as the industry’s white whale.
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