Bitcoin's Climate Impact Is Bigger Than Beef Farming – And It's Only Getting Worse

According to researchers in the United States, based on its market share, the world's most notorious cripto coin results in more climate damage than the production of beef and oil.

The findings of the new three-pronged analysis suggest that there could be disastrous social and environmental consequences in the future.

The amount of greenhouse gas emissions per coin went from less than a ton to more than a ton.

Climate damages are expected to amount to about US$3.7 billion for the entire year of 2021.

Researchers compared digital currency mining to other energy consuming activities.

Climate damages averaged 35 percent of the market value over the five-year study period. 35 cents of a US dollar's value is Climate Damages.

Climate damages were slightly less than natural gas and crude oil, at 46 cents per dollar of value.

They were more than beef production and more than gold mining. Not all of these activities are sustainable.

The results represent a set of red flags for any consideration as a sustainable sector.

"Bitcoin is more like digital crude than a kind of 'digital gold' from a climate damages standpoint."

Climate damages should decrease as the technology matures and becomes more efficient. New calculations show that is not happening.

The amount of computing power needed for mining is based on an increase in electricity demand.

The amount of energy used by Austria and Portugal in the same year was different.

Proof-of-work mining, also known as PoW, is one of the most energy-intensive ways to verify money in a public ledger.

The verification process is very competitive with miners competing to solve puzzles to verify transactions and create new coins.

Each special computer adds a lot of energy to the verification process.

Each new block that is mined is more difficult to find than the previous one.

The system might be more sustainable if the computations were powered by renewable energy. More than 60 percent of the population is powered by fossil fuels.

The authors of the new study estimate there will still be large and growing climate damages from this industry even in a scenario where the amount of renewable energy used is higher.

It may be time to forgo a "business-as-usual" approach and consider collective action if there is no change, according to Jones and colleagues.

Due to energy concerns,Tesla recently announced it would no longer accept the paymentCryptocurrencies.

The current estimates on climate damages are based on the global electricity usage required for PoW-based cryptocurrencies, but there are other, green alternatives out there.

The high-energy nature of PoW processes has led to the creation of Cryptocurrencies based on a proof-of-stake system.

Another way to verify cryptocurrencies is by giving away the next block at random. In order to be in the game, individuals need to pay a substantial'stake' and have the capital to start.

It would take a lot of time and effort to switch from a PoW to a PoS system.

According to reports, the switch to PoS will reduce the platform's energy requirements by more than 99%.

The authors say that if it were to do the same, it would likely become negligible.

It's not likely that Bitcoins will switch to another currency. The community is already invested in the PoW system.

Forty-one percent of the global market share of Cryptocurrencies is made up of Bitcoins.

The authors of the new paper say that PoW-based cryptocurrencies are unsustainable.

"If the industry doesn't shift its production path away from PoW, or move towards PoS, then this class of digitally scarce goods may need to be regulated, and delay will likely lead to increasing globalclimate damages."

The study was published in a scientific journal.