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15/07/2025, 20:28:04 UTC CHANGED TITLE Debunking the "Bitcoin is an environmental disaster" argument
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Last scraped
Edited on 15/07/2025, 20:28:04 UTC
Recently I often heard bitcoin critics telling me that "Bitcoin is too polluting", "Bitcoin wastewastes too much energy", or other similar arguments.


Those arguments haveare as old as bitcoin, even Satoshi discussed those, and they had been debunked a few several times, but I am trying here to organise all the material to counter those accusations.

I will try to "answer" specific claims, with a few counterarguments, supported by data, websites and references. soSo that it will be easier to organise a "defence" of Bitcoin, in the unlikely case that Bitcoin needneeds a defence.

      • Defence
        • Televisions, aeroplanes, Christmas lights, plastic, all require enormous amounts of energy to be produced and used: what is the amount of energy considered excessive to produce them? Why is this calculation done for Bitcoin and not for other goods?
        • According to data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, devices kept on standby, in the United States alone, could power the bitcoin network for more than a year and a half. (a figure that has been constantly decreasing).
      • Mining bitcoin is actually quite environmentally friendly compared to mining other Stores of Value (Gold)

        Quote
        Bitcoin is recognised as a store of value, making it comparable to gold. In 2020, 3,200 tonnes of gold was mined, equating to approximately 90,301,440 million tonnes of CO2 emitted.
        In comparison, Bitcoin is estimated to emit around 37 million tonnes of CO2 throughout 2021, with China powering 65% of the hash rate in March 2021. China pledges to be net zero by 2050, along with most of the world, under the Paris agreement. Under the assumption this is achieved, this would indicate Bitcoin will be powered by renewable energy by 2050, making it a zero-carbon technology. In addition, gold mining is renowned for being one of the most destructive industries responsible for polluting drinking water with cyanide, mercury and other heavy metals whilst destroying pristine environments and causing damaging health effects. Removing reliance on the need for gold not only has the potential to decarbonise the gold reserve industry but also reduces these negative environmental and health impacts. However, the reliance on countries sticking to the Paris Agreement is needed in order to decarbonise Bitcoin.
        Edit: Information on China's energy policy
        China uses the most cost-effective renewables and could viably generate 60% of its energy with green energy by 2030. It is estimated the renewable energy implementation could save China around 11% in monetary cost. Feasibly following the laws of economics, Bitcoin miners will be more likely to use renewable energy sources if they are cheaper. Therefore, reducing Bitcoin's carbon footprint.
        Reddit Source

      • Other human activities produce comparable results.
        According to a recent study, watching Netflix for an hour produces 100g of CO2.
        Netflix has 205 millions of subscribers.
        Each Netflix subscriber watches two hours daily, on average.
        Hence Netflix streamed 149 billion hours last year.
        If each of these hours is 100g of CO2, then to watch Netflix, 15 million metric tons of CO2 have been added to the atmosphere every year. Netflix alone is almost one-third of the whole Bitcoin industry. So guess what happens when we add other services.

         

    • Accusation
      • Miners in China ravage the environment to produce Bitcoin. A large part of electricity production in China is made withfrom fossil sources, especially coal, and the ecological footprint of Bitcoin is unsustainable.

    • Defence
      • Miners, by their nature, have anthe incentive to go in search offor energy at the lowest possible cost. The energy market, like any other, is governed by the laws of supply and demand. The cheap energy that is cheap is typically that produced in excess that otherwise would not be exploited and literally wasted.
      • Many miners are concentrated in large hydroelectric plants (for example, in China) where the levels of production surplus are enormous and can thus obtain very low energy prices. Suffice it to say that in 2017, compared to 250twh produced by the Yunnan dams, 155twh were used (95twh thrown away, since they cannot be stored).
      • Recent studies show that bitcoin mining uses 39% energy from renewable sources (solar, hydroelectric, wind, geothermal, etc.) and 25% from energy derived from nuclear power and, to a minimum, fossil fuels. This percentage is steadily increasing, especially in China, where the transition to low carbon footprint production is happening more rapidly.
      • Bitcoin helps the efficiency of the energy industry,; for example, it can help prevent "Renewable Curtailment" as well as making it profitable to capture gas otherwise destined to be burned in gas flaring which encourages producers to reduce carbon emissions. Low-carbon energy projects such as hydroelectric, nuclear or renewables can be made profitable by selling the excess energy produced to the mining of bitcoin.
      • A very large part of the energy produced is not used correctly, partly because it despairs in unprofitable uses (dispersion in networks, thermal dispersion in endothermic engines etc ...) partlyand partially because it is produced in places or moments where not necessary (eg:e.g., power plants producing during off-peak times, nuclear power plants when price is too low, etc.). Well, in this space, Bitcoin can make a hugemassive contribution, by efficiently using resources that would otherwise be wasted.

        Quote
        Notice that rejected energy accounts for around two-thirds of all electricity generation. This energy is produced but ultimately does not go to usefulpractical work. The amount wasted annually is around 66.7 quadrillions BTU’sof BTUs (for short: "quads") of energypower.  For perspective, that is the energy equivalent of wasting 2.3 billion metric tons of coal every year.

        Quote
        The potential for Bitcoin-powered renewables is already evident in China. A 2019 report by Coinshares found that approximately 75% of Bitcoin mining comes from renewable energy sources, much of which stems from newly created hydroelectricity. These new revenue streams have brought power plants online, which otherwise would not have been economically viable given existing conditions.



      • Bitcoin is a battery.
        Quote
        So, if we think of Bitcoin as a battery, what can we do with it? The critical properties of Bitcoin's battery are: 1) always on and permissionless (no need to find customers, just plug and go) and 2) naturally seeking low-cost electricity: it will always buy when the price is right.
        [REMOVED IMAGE]
        Given those properties, Bitcoin's battery can assist renewable builds (and electric grids more generally) in several ways:
        • Interconnection lines: When developing new energy resources, you must apply them to connect them to the grid. Texas alone has over 100 GW of renewables in its lines. These lines can take years to clear. In the meantime, these assets could be online and earn Bitcoin.
        • Project finance: Renewable developers need capital to finance build-outs before they have customers. Bitcoin's battery is always ready to be the first customer.
        • Geographic issues: Sometimes, the sunniest, windiest places are not the ones with the most customers, so it's hard to justify the development of new renewables. Bitcoin's battery solves this, becoming a "virtual transmission line" of sorts.
        • Timing & grid balance: Sometimes, when the sun shines and when the wind blows is not when we need the most electricity. Yet, electric grids are marketplaces that must balance supply and demand perfectly. Therefore, grid-connected renewables often have to "curtail" (turn off) if they produce too much energy at the wrong time. Bitcoin's battery is ready to buy 24/7/365 when the price is right, turning up and down as needed and participating via direct power purchase agreements and demand response programs.
        • Underperformance: Related to the timing & balance issues above, often, renewables produce more energy than is needed on their grid, leading to subpar financial performance. Bitcoin's battery is ready to buy if no one else will.
        • Cleaning the grid: Even outside of renewable generation, Bitcoin's battery can help improve both emissions and the energy mix. For example, Crusoe Energy attaches efficient turbines and mining equipment to existing gas flaring sites, both improving emissions and converting energy into Bitcoin's battery. Taking this a step further, you could even then take those profits and reinvest them in on-grid renewables elsewhere, another twist on the idea of Bitcoin as a "virtual transmission line" (aka battery).



    • Accusation
      • The Bitcoin network is maximally inefficient. PoW leads to the consumption of a hugeconsiderable amount of energy consumption for each Bitcoin transaction if, for example, we compare it with VISAVisa.

    • Defence
      • The energy consumed by the Bitcoin network is also used to secure it, since an attacker who wants to try to destroy Bitcoin would have to use (therefore buy or produce) a higher amount of energy compared to that used by the Bitcoin network.
      • Il PoW is efficient and mining is a highly competitive industry. Any slightest energy inefficiency is punished by lower profitability. This guides miners towards the highest possible efficiency.
      • The cost of mining is not the energy cost of transactions, and certainspecific metrics they claim to compare eg, e.g. the costprice of a single bitcoin transaction with the energy consumption of a transaction on the Visa circuit, are completelyentirely meaningless. The mining mechanism serves precisely to make the system safe (from double-spending to other possible attacks on the network) in a trustless network, i.e. without a central authority that effectively updates the ledger. The only honest comparison would be with the overall cost of circuit security systems and banking systems. How much is spent globally each year globally to make banks and payment systems safe and reliable? With all the dedicated servers, data centres, network infrastructures, and procedures constantly running for authorizationauthorisation, settlement, clearing, reconciliation, etc. Not to mention the costs for the construction, operation, maintenance and surveillance of ATMs, bank branches, vaults and related security systems, etc.
      • In a very well-written article by, Conio's Guido D.Assori (who signed the very first SegwitSegWit transaction), says this is a feature, not a bug.
        Here is a courtesy translation of this specific part of the article, where he answers Paolo Attivissimo's accusation about bitcoin consuming all that energy to validate only 7 transactions per second.

        Quote
        The third attack would be that Bitcoin would moveAll this energy for 7 transactions per second and that in a nutshell for such a system even a few kilowatts now would be wasted (curious, then, that Attivissimo remembers this after accepting Bitcoin donations for years, on its blog, of this great problem).?
        Quickly: this numberThe third attack would be that Bitcoin would move 7 transactions per second, unfortunately, arises from a profound misunderstanding of the real decoupling between the technological infrastructure called "blockchain" and the transfer of valuethat in a nutshell for a system of this kind even a few kilowatt hours would be wasted (curious, then, that Attivissimo remembers this after accepting Bitcoin donations for years, on his blog, of this big problem).
        It is frequent, butQuickly: this does not make it any less wrongnumber unfortunately arises from a profound misunderstanding of the real decoupling between the technological infrastructure called "blockchain" and the transfer of value named in Bitcoin.
        Premise: "It's a feature!"frequent, Or rather the size of the Blockchain is deliberately smallbut that doesn't make it any less wrong.
        Being able to write onPremise: "It's a blockchain must be a luxuryfeature!", so that it remains decentralized, so that everyone, at any time and with a relatively low effort, can independently verifyi.e. the correctnesssize of transactions on the network, and not just the large banking institutionsBlockchain is deliberately small.
        HoweverBeing able to write on a blockchain must be a luxury, nowadaysin order for it to remain decentralized, at every moment of the day, Bitcoins, or contractsso that are related to their valueeveryone, are brokeredat any time and traded on cryptocurrency exchangeswith relatively little effort, on custodial platforms, by meanscan autonomously verify the correctness of pegged tokens,transactions on sidechainsthe network, on Lighting Networks, by means of CFDsand not just the large banking institutions. , with various levels of enforcement.
        And this happens through a number of transactions that are much more than 7 per secondHowever, believe me! Claiming the opposite would be like expecting our morning coffee paid fornow at every moment of the bar to be recordedday, on cryptocurrency exchanges, on custodial platforms, by all the backupsmeans of all the nodespegged tokens, on sidechains, on Lighting Network, by means of all the Eurozone interbank circuitsCFDs, Bitcoins are intermediated and exchanged, or contracts that are traced back to their value , with varying degrees of enforcement.
        And this happens through a number of transactions that are much more than 7 per second, believe me! To expect the opposite would be like demanding that our morning coffee paid for at the bar be recorded by all the backups of all the nodes of all the interbank circuits in the Eurozone.
        So how many transactions, really?
        In general, it is a non-measurablean unmeasurable number, and it will be less and less, the estimates will be more and more heuristic, also thanks to privacy -preserving platforms.
        We can say, to give amake the general idea, that every transaction that takes place on an order bookorderbook of any platform, which represents Bitcoin, can only exist thanks to the fact that, underneath, there is the Proof Of Work which, whenif necessary, allows the settlement of a precise state of a chain of transactions of indefinite length (my token goes to you, you givewho gives it to him, you givewho gives it to the other, who breaks it in three and gives it to the other, who collects 8 ). ArenDon't you going to expect all the coins you exchange to end up writtennoted down somewhere?
        Quite simplySimply, people every day rely on intermediaries every day to exchange Bitcoin value in Bitcoin without using a blockchain directly.
        The global concept of decentralization is maintained, relocation is increasedincreases with confidence inon the last mile (not always! LN!) Butbut the connectionconnecting element always remains the last, only, true, mandatory, a digital ledger in which the compensation movements.
        ComparingTherefore, therefore,comparing the phantomimaginary 7 transactions (which is a number that was good in 2013, today there are many more even on-chain) to the world's ability to transact Bitcoin, and tielinking it to the PoW, is a bit like expectingpretending that there are, at all times, a sufficient quantitynumber of vansarmored cars to move all the gold in all the vaults of the world that intend to exchange gold.

        Of course, that's not how it works.

        Bitcoin is not a payment system, but a settlement system. Therefore, the comparison should not be made with payment circuits (Credit Cardscredit cards), but with the various settlement layers (SWIFT, CHIPS, FedWire ) o or Fedwire.

        On this particular aspect, please consider reading A Closer Look at the Environmental Impact of Bitcoin Mining

        Quote

        Bitcoin is a settlement system, not a payments aggregator

        First things first. What is Bitcoin, and what is it not?

        Bitcoin is a settlement system like FedWire. It is not a payments aggregator like Visa. I constantly see Bitcoin compared to Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal. This is the primary source of mathematical atrocities whereby Bitcoin's overall electricity cost is divided by its transactions and then compared to something it's not. Energy use per settlement transaction is a nonsensical metric by which to judge Bitcoin's energy use.

        Just like the 800,000 or so daily FedWire transactions are not a good measure of the total amount of daily Dollar (USD) transactions, Bitcoin's 325,000 or so daily transactions are not a good measure of the total amount of daily bitcoin (BTC/XBT) transactions. This is because most bitcoin transactions are not visible. They take place inside the payment aggregation systems of exchanges, on the Lightning network, and yes, even inside of actual aggregators like PayPal, Square, or MasterCard. Only periodically are they settled onto the Bitcoin blockchain as visible transactions.

        Solutions like this are referred to as network layering. This is a tried and tested approach to separating casual retail transactions from heavier settlement transactions, and it is precisely how we already do things in the fiat monetary and payment systems. In such a system, the base layer, like FedWire (or Bitcoin), only acts as the final arbitrator of settlement transactions. Everything else, which is the vast majority of all transactions, happens in higher payment aggregation layers, which are often entirely different systems.

        In other words, Bitcoin is not a competitor to Visa, MasterCard or Paypal. Instead, Bitcoin is an independent monetary system that aggregators can make use of.

        Presenting Bitcoin's electricity consumption in terms of its daily number of settlement transactions is a red herring.

      • Similar considerations can be made for a comparison between gold and bitcoin as "digital gold", and then in addition to the costs for the safe custody of gold, those for its mining, refining, smelting, transport, etc. should also be added. I challenge anyone to argue that all thisthese can be considered particularly "green", but strangely I have never heard anyone complain and ask to ban gold for its environmental impact.

If you have any other suggestion, please point me in the right direction, and I will try to address every issueA very Good long-form by Nic Carter debunking a Bloomberg article on mining contains a summary of all the above arguments:

Noahbjectivity on Bitcoin Mining



Quote
The Bloomberg columnist Noah Smith has a lot of thoughts on Bitcoin. Some of them are really solid and engage with the reality of the protocol itself, which is rare for a member of the mainstream media circuit. He also discloses that he owns Bitcoin, which is impressive for an economist and an established member. So I'm pretty happy with him overall. I don't want this piece to be interpreted as a blanket critique of Noah's stance on Bitcoin. However, Noah's recent column in Bloomberg, Bitcoin Miners are on a Path to Self-Destruction, makes a few claims that warrant a response.
Noah's basic premise is that Bitcoin miners are effectively hogging the grid in the various places where they operate and risk getting banned entirely. Not only is the notion of a global coordinated ban on mining far-fetched, but Noah relies on a few claims that are dubious at best. Let's investigate.


A few "all-rounders" long form:





Other Useful Links:




If you have any other suggestions, please point me in the right direction, and I will try to address every issue.





This post is eligible for my project:


Quote
I am a strong believer in the utility of local boards.
I am lucky enough to be able to express myself in at least a couple of languages, but I know this is not the case for everyone.
A lot of users post only in the local boards because of a variety of reasons  either language or cultural barriers, lack of interest or whatever other reason.
I personally know a lot of very good users (from the italian sections mainly, for obvious reason) who doesn't post in the international sections.

I think all those users they are missing a lot of good contents posted on the international (english) section or on other boards.

If you think you can help here, just visit the thread!

Original archived Debunking "Bitcoin is an environment disaster" Argument.
Scraped on 20/03/2021, 21:55:09 UTC
Recently I often heard bitcoin critics telling me that "Bitcoin is too polluting", "Bitcoin waste too much energy" or other similar arguments.


Those arguments have been debunked a few several times, but I am trying here to organise all the material to counter those accusations.

I will try to "answer" specific claims, with a few counterarguments, supported by data, websites and references. so that it will be easier to organise a "defence" of Bitcoin, in the unlikely case Bitcoin need a defence.

    • Accusation
      • Miners in China ravage the environment to produce Bitcoin. A large part of electricity production in China is made with fossil sources, especially coal, and the ecological footprint of Bitcoin is unsustainable.

    • Defence
      • Miners by their nature have an incentive to go in search of energy at the lowest possible cost. The energy market like any other is governed by the laws of supply and demand. The energy that is cheap is typically that produced in excess that otherwise would not be exploited and literally wasted.
      • Many miners are concentrated in large hydroelectric plants (for example in China) where the levels of production surplus are enormous and can thus obtain very low energy prices. Suffice it to say that in 2017, compared to 250twh produced by the Yunnan dams, 155twh were used (95twh thrown away, since they cannot be stored).
      • Recent studies show that bitcoin mining uses 39% energy from renewable sources (solar, hydroelectric, wind, geothermal, etc.) and 25% from energy derived from nuclear power and, to a minimum, fossil fuels. This percentage is steadily increasing, especially in China, where the transition to low carbon footprint production is happening more rapidly.
      • Bitcoin helps the efficiency of the energy industry,for example it can help prevent "Renewable Curtailment" as well asmaking it profitable to capture gas otherwise destined to be burned in gas flaringwhich encourages producers to reduce carbon emissions. Low-carbon energy projects such as hydroelectric, nuclear or renewables can be made profitable by selling the excess energy produced to the mining of bitcoin.
      • A very large part of the energy produced is not used correctly, partly because it despairs in unprofitable uses (dispersion in networks, thermal dispersion in endothermic engines etc ...) partly because it is produced in places or moments where not necessary (eg: power plants off-peak nuclear power plants, etc). Well, in this space, Bitcoin can make a huge contribution, by efficiently using resources that would otherwise be wasted.

        Quote
        Notice that rejected energy accounts for around two-thirds of all electricity generation. This energy is produced but ultimately does not go to useful work. The amount wasted annually is around 66.7 quadrillions BTU’s (“quads”) of energy.  For perspective, that is the energy equivalent of wasting 2.3 billion metric tons of coal every year.

        Quote
        The potential for Bitcoin-powered renewables is already evident in China. A 2019 report by Coinshares found that approximately 75% of Bitcoin mining comes from renewable energy sources, much of which stems from newly created hydroelectricity. These new revenue streams have brought power plants online which otherwise would not have been economically viable given existing
        .




    • Accusation
      • The Bitcoin network is maximally inefficient. PoW leads to the consumption of a huge amount of energy for each Bitcoin transaction if for example, we compare it with VISA.

    • Defence
      • The energy consumed by the Bitcoin network is also used to secure it, since an attacker who wants to try to destroy Bitcoin would have to use (therefore buy or produce) a higher amount of energy compared to that used by the Bitcoin network.
      • Il PoW is efficientand mining is a highly competitive industry. Any slightest energy inefficiency is punished by lower profitability. This guides miners towards the highest possible efficiency.
      • The cost of mining is not the energy cost of transactions, and certain metrics they claim to compare eg. the cost of a single bitcoin transaction with the energy consumption of a transaction on the Visa circuit are completely meaningless. The mining mechanism serves precisely to make the system safe (from double-spending to other possible attacks on the network) in a trustless network, i.e. without a central authority that effectively updates the ledger. The only honest comparison would be with the overall cost of circuit security systems and banking systems. How much is spent globally each year to make banks and payment systems safe and reliable? With all the dedicated servers, data centres, network infrastructures, procedures constantly running for authorization, settlement, clearing, reconciliation, etc. Not to mention the costs for the construction, operation, maintenance and surveillance of ATMs, bank branches, vaults and related security systems, etc.
      • In a very well written article by Conio's Guido D.Assori (who signed the very first Segwit transaction) says this is a feature, not a bug.
        Here a courtesy translation of this specific part of the article.

        Quote
        The third attack would be that Bitcoin would move 7 transactions per second and that in a nutshell for such a system even a few kilowatts now would be wasted (curious, then, that Attivissimo remembers this after accepting Bitcoin donations for years, on its blog, of this great problem).
        Quickly: this number, unfortunately, arises from a profound misunderstanding of the real decoupling between the technological infrastructure called "blockchain" and the transfer of value in Bitcoin.
        It is frequent, but this does not make it any less wrong.
        Premise: "It's a feature!", Or rather the size of the Blockchain is deliberately small.
        Being able to write on a blockchain must be a luxury, so that it remains decentralized, so that everyone, at any time and with a relatively low effort, can independently verify the correctness of transactions on the network, and not just the large banking institutions.
        However, nowadays, at every moment of the day, Bitcoins, or contracts that are related to their value, are brokered and traded on cryptocurrency exchanges, on custodial platforms, by means of pegged tokens, on sidechains, on Lighting Networks, by means of CFDs. , with various levels of enforcement.
        And this happens through a number of transactions that are much more than 7 per second, believe me! Claiming the opposite would be like expecting our morning coffee paid for at the bar to be recorded by all the backups of all the nodes of all the Eurozone interbank circuits.
        So how many transactions, really?
        In general, it is a non-measurable number, and it will be less and less, the estimates will be more and more heuristic, also thanks to privacy-preserving platforms.
        We can say, to give a general idea, that every transaction that takes place on an order book of any platform, which represents Bitcoin, can only exist thanks to the fact that, underneath, there is the Proof Of Work which, when necessary, allows settlement of a precise state of a chain of transactions of indefinite length (my token goes to you, you give it to him, you give it to the other, who breaks it in three and gives it to the other, who collects 8 ). Aren't you going to expect all the coins you exchange to end up written down somewhere?
        Quite simply, people every day rely on intermediaries to exchange Bitcoin value without using a blockchain directly.
        The global concept of decentralization is maintained, relocation is increased with confidence in the last mile (not always! LN!) But the connection element always remains the last, only, true, mandatory, a digital ledger in which the compensation movements.
        Comparing, therefore, the phantom 7 transactions (which is a number that was good in 2013, today there are many more even on-chain) to the world's ability to transact Bitcoin, and tie it to the PoW, is a bit like expecting that there are, at all times, a sufficient quantity of vans to move all the gold in all the vaults of the world that intend to exchange gold.

        Bitcoin is not a payment system, but a settlement system. Therefore, the comparison should not be made with payment circuits (Credit Cards), but with the various settlement layers (SWIFT, CHIPS, FedWire ) o Fedwire.
      • Similar considerations can be made for a comparison between gold and bitcoin as "digital gold", and then in addition to the costs for the safe custody of gold, those for its mining, refining, smelting, transport, etc. should also be added. I challenge anyone to argue that all this can be considered particularly "green", but strangely I have never heard anyone complain and ask to ban gold for its environmental impact.

If you have any other suggestion, please point me in the right direction, and I will try to address every issue.