As compete with the market which in
As of 2017 Crypto Currencies have been increasing inpopularity, promising fast paced, global and anonymous transactions through theuse of virtual tokens and blockchain technology. With a limited supply thesevirtual tokens have started to skyrocket in price gaining the interests of techenthusiasts and investors. The most prominent crypto currency at this time isBitcoin, you can earn Bitcoin through a process called mining which requires alot of expensive and power hungry hardware. For years many companies havebought out offices to mine Bitcoin in order to reap its benefits, this massmining of sorts has arguably started to cause adverse effects on the environment.
Over time mining Bitcoin gets harder, so mass mining becomesless profitable. This means that mining companies have to buy more hardware inorder to compete with the market which in turn consumes more power. “Just one transaction can use as much energyas an entire household does in a week, and there are about300,000 transactions every day.
” (Atkin, 2017). Mining is a very demanding process whichthousands, if not, millions are using in order to obtain Bitcoin. This massivedemand of energy is met by fossil fuels, notoriously known for polluting notjust the air, but the water as well and emitting greenhouse gasses. Finally, as stated above, over time miningBitcoin gets significantly more difficult. This creates a cycle of companieshaving to buy more hardware to compete and the consumption of energy tocontinue to rise; however with this predicament reaching the public eye, somenew crypto currencies have developed different environmentally friendly ways toverify transactions without the process of ‘mining’. On the hand, research has shown that bitcoin mining isn’t asimpactful on the environment as other physical real world currencies. Goldmining consumes approximately 132 terawatt-hours per year, not includingtransport, bank vaults and security systems etcetera. Opposed to bitcoin’s estimated11 terawatt hours where no transport or vault is needed once a coin is mined.
