Concerns about the cryptocurrency’s energy use are overblown

Today, all bit­co­in miners con­su­me about as much elec­tri­ci­ty as is gene­ra­ted by the lar­gest hydro dam in the United States, appro­xi­m­ate­ly 6 GW. Also often miss­ing in this rela­ti­on are relia­ble esti­ma­tes of the signi­fi­cant envi­ron­men­tal impact and car­bon foot­print of the tra­di­tio­nal finan­cial sys­tem, e.g. phy­si­cal metals extraction.

The still exis­ting lack of trust in cryp­to cur­ren­ci­es may exist due to envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns, par­ti­cu­lar­ly among­st tho­se most con­cer­ned about issues like glo­bal warm­ing. But about 80% of elec­tri­ci­ty curr­ent­ly used for the Bitcoin mining is alre­a­dy deri­ved from rene­wa­ble ener­gy what inde­ed stands in strong con­trast to popu­lar mar­ket belief.

Quelle: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017–12-07/bitcoin-is-greener-than-its-critics-think