Yes, Bitcoin Mining IS a Carbon Menace
Yes, Bitcoin Mining IS a Carbon Menace
There has been a lot of back and forth on the issue of whether BitCoin is a significant carbon generator. Well, now we have it from no better or more trustworthy source: Guan Dabo at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China( https://www.newscientist.com/article/2273672-bitcoin-mining-emissions-in-china-will-hit-130-million-tonnes-by-2024/#ixzz6rxY1cFM4)
I am pretty amazed that the CPC let this out. But, China is a lot more free than many in the West believe. And often it’s hard to say why or wherefore.
Nevertheless, here’s the bottom line:
“By 2024, bitcoin mining in China will require 297 terawatt-hours of energy and account for approximately 5.4 per cent of the carbon emissions from generating electricity in the country.”
China is one of the largest emitters of carbon on earth, along with the USA. 5.4% of all emissions is a giant amount of carbon.
What is important to understand is not so much the problem of carbon, but the problem generally of crypto: China. China has a giant monopoly on the mining, technology and at-scale know-how to do this. Which means that crypto is completely in the hands on an anti-democratic, anti-human rights world power. As the self-described “crypto-extremist” Peter Thiel recently pointed out: this is a ticking time bomb for the Western financial system.
Among the suggestions to mitigate the Chinese monopoly on Crypto is that the western alliance or possibly just the USA could ramp up mining and take away the monopoly. Let’s be clear: this will never happen. Not just because getting congress and others on board with a giant project to fund crypto is laughable. It is also pointless since Crypto in general serves no useful purpose. And any attempt to do this by the government or (huge fantasy) private industry would crash the market with all the serpentine consequences.
So what to do? I have written about this and will do more writing. Here is my first installment, pass it on:
https://jsadove.medium.com/crypto-how-to-put-the-genie-back-in-the-bottle-de74d33d33d5
