How big is Bitcoin's carbon footprint?
Unlike mainstream traditional currencies, bitcoin is virtual and not made from paper or plastic, or even metal. Bitcoin is virtual but power-hungry as it is created using high-powered computers around the globe.
At current rates, such bitcoin "mining" devours about the same amount of energy annually as the Netherlands did in 2019.
Greater demand, and higher prices, lead to more miners competing to solve puzzles in the fastest time to win coin, using increasingly powerful computers that need more energy, that often relies on fossil fuels, particularly coal, the dirtiest of them all.
Bitcoin production is estimated to generate between 22 and 22.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, or between the levels produced by Jordan and Sri Lanka, a 2019 study in scientific journal Joule found.
Reference: reuters.com
