Post
Topic
Board Serious discussion
Is Bitcoin Destroying the Planet?
by
hugeblack
on 16/04/2018, 15:21:52 UTC
With the price of the Bitcoin rising, fears are mounting that the mining centers are consuming too much electricity (to the extent that some call it an environmental disaster).
Smari McCarthy of Iceland's Pirate Party says"We are spending tens or maybe hundreds of megawatts on producing something that has no tangible existence and no real use for humans outside the realm of financial speculation"[1]
Although the main use of Bitcoin is not speculation, [for example, in some countries, bitcoin used to request medicine and food from outside of the country because of local currency problems] however, the consumption of this amount of electricity is not justified.

If electricity consumption is the problem, why miners do not focus on renewables?[for example, In Iceland, electricity supplies from renewable sources are so abundant that they can be distributed free of charge][2].But if the use of bitcoin mining from renewable sources increases, does that threaten the future of energy? "We will not have enough energy for future generations"

Source:
#1 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/in-iceland-bitcoin-mining-will-soon-use-more-energy-than-its-residents/
#2 https://www.ecowatch.com/iceland-worlds-largest-clean-energy-producer-per-capita-1882105880.html