Bitcoin

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<p>Prices falling for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies results in miners reducing the size of their equipment inventory. When this happens, the speed at which these machines run also decreases.</p><p>In November 2018, it was estimated by Digiconomist that over a span of 20 days, energy costs increased by about half. Even when prices rose again in 2022 for Ethereum, the cost of electricity still continued to go up.</p><h2 id="header-0"><strong>As Bitcoin increases in value, the climate suffers</strong></h2><p>The high electricity usage is due to the fact that cryptocurrency mining requires a lot of computing power. This process of verifying and adding transactions to the public blockchain, known as “mining,” can be very energy-intensive.</p><p>As more people become interested in cryptocurrency, the demand for mining grows. This, in turn, increases the strain on the global energy supply. In fact, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change, cryptocurrency mining could single-handedly push global temperatures up by 2°C within just 30 years.</p><h2 id="header-1"><strong>Why is Bitcoin so bad for the environment?</strong></h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/srd-optimized-uploads/e1f007029930472ebb00f64daac8722f.png" /><p>Bitcoin mining has more energy consumption each year than Malaysia or Sweden, according to the Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, run by Cambridge University’s Centre for Alternative Finance.</p><p>Campaigners claim that the impact is exacerbated by the fact that most of the mining takes place in China, which is heavily reliant on coal power. Bitcoin has been on a rollercoaster ride over the past two years or so.</p><p>Its price soared during the pandemic; it had gone from about $6,500 in March 2020 to as high as $67,000 in November 2021 before abruptly losing half its value in a matter of weeks.</p><h2 id="header-2"><strong>How bad is Dogecoin for the environment?</strong></h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/srd-optimized-uploads/2e0f0b4e86db491eb6a1a98ed2037042.png" /><p>TRG Datacenters in Texas has analyzed a range of cryptocurrencies and ranked them according to the amount of energy required to power each transaction.</p><p>Dogecoin used 0.12kilowatts of energy per hour (kWh) per transaction, well ahead of bitcoin, which was at the bottom of the table, using 707kWh.</p><p>However, critics claim its true environmental impact is difficult to assess because of the complexity of its mining system.</p><h2 id="header-3"><strong>Special mention – Ethereum (ETH)</strong></h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/srd-optimized-uploads/25505562b6b94c64b9e64d3b1971276d.png" /><p>For many years, Ethereum has been talking about going green loudly, but there’s been little follow-through on all of the promises. The cryptocurrency continues to consume significant amounts of power every year, enough to run a sizable nation or power an average American home for a day. Ethereum is still more energy efficient than Bitcoin and is at least attempting to make things better.</p><p>While Ethereum’s creator has long recognized the wasteful nature of today’s cryptocurrency sector, he began a huge project to rewrite the code in 2014 as part of his crusade against bloat. The aim is to convert the current Proof of Work system with a Proof of Stake algorithm, but progress has been sluggish.</p><p>As of 2019, the developers abandoned their original plan to repair the plane while it is in flight and opted for a two-chain approach, pairingProof of Work with Proof Of Stake. They named this version Ethereum 2.0.</p><p>In December 2020, Ethereum launched Beacon Chain as the first step in this shift of the network. Under Beacon Chain, Ethereum 2.0 stores and manages the registry of validators and deploys the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism.</p><p>The original chain is still running alongside it for now, but full implementation isn’t planned until 2022. So, we haven’t seen the promised one hundredfold reduction in energy per transaction yet.</p><h3 id="what-s-the-bottom-line">What’s the bottom line?</h3><p>Although much remains to be done to reduce the environmental impact of trading cryptocurrency, eco-minded investors can feel good about the fact that there’s a notable and ongoing movement in that direction.</p><p>While the Crypto Climate Accord continues its work and the environmental impact of cryptocurrency trading remains under scrutiny, concerned traders have many ways to vote with their coins. From investing in more sustainable projects to simply holding onto their coins, each and every crypto user can do their part to make the industry greener.</p><p></p>

How Bad is Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin to the Environment?

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