Bitcoin is very popular in this digital globalized world. Although there are a lot of cryptocurrencies running in this world, Bitcoin is the most famous. You must have listened to something about Bitcoin mining from any digital advertisement or your friend or your colleague etc.
Everyone around you must have told you about their profit-making from Bitcoin but never tell you how much detrimental this Bitcoin mining is for our only and lonely living planet. We are now going to tell you all the honest truths about this Bitcoin mining.
What is Bitcoin?
As you must know that Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. Like all other cryptocurrencies, this currency has no linkage with the real physical world which you can touch. You can touch paper money with your hands but you can’t touch cryptocurrency. Like all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin also exists only electronically. It is just a marketplace. People assign different values to the coins of this Bitcoin currency and that’s how it works.
All cryptocurrencies are decentralized. Decentralized currency means that there is no central bank or any other governing central authority that controls and regulates this currency. Regulatory bodies don’t control transactions. Thus, these cryptocurrencies work without any transaction fees. Thus, here comes the concept of Bitcoin mining as this decentralized ledger of cryptocurrency needs it for maintenance.
Bitcoin Mining: What Is It?
Bitcoin mining maintains and validates a ledger in blockchain but in a very creative and weird way. Aside from this, the Bitcoin mining process releases new Bitcoins as a reward for solving a complex algorithm and a mathematical problem. The one who solves the problem first will get the award of new Bitcoins and also the transaction fees of validating a transaction in the blockchain.
Blockchain is a transaction database of Bitcoin currency in which all transactions are recorded in blocks. All mining computers are connected to this database as nodes. When you perform mining in your powerful mining computer, you try to validate a new transaction in the blockchain by solving complex mathematical number problems. The more powerful your computer is, the more chances you have to win the reward.
In the same way, if the more powerful mining computers are competing to solve complex problems at a time, then the complexity level of the problem increases extremely. Thus, more and more powerful computers are needed to win the Bitcoin rewards in tough competition.
Now, you can easily imagine how much energy these extraordinarily powerful computers use. Likewise, how many harmful greenhouse gases do these heavy gaming Bitcoin mining computers produce? Do you really think about this? Here, lies the explanation.
Bitcoin Mining: Why It Hurts Our Climate
No one can deny the fact that Bitcoin mining computers are using excessive energy for solving complex problems in order to get new Bitcoin. Most of the mining computers are gaming computers that have powerful graphical processing units for better quality graphics.
A single graphical processing unit has processing power equal to 30 central processing units. As powerful computers are working on this mining work, they usually get heat-up during their operations. This means more energy cools these computers. As more and more competition increases on this blockchain, more and more advanced computers need to solve the problems. That’s how this Bitcoin mining is hurting our climate.
There is no doubt that Bitcoin mining is supporting global warming. According to an analysis report by the University of Cambridge, the average usage of energy in Bitcoin mining is 121.36 terawatt-hours per year. This is more than the combined energy usage of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple. This figure of 121.36 terawatt-hours per year of energy usage is even more than the annual energy usage of the whole of Argentina.
Wastage Of Water Due to Bitcoin Mining
Bitcoin mining is the culprit for wasting the precious water of our earth. According to a survey, the Greenidge Bitcoin mining power plant in the United States uses 139 million gallons of fresh water to keep cool the plant for mining operations and discharges extremely hot water into the lake. This seriously disturbs the biodiversity of the aquatic ecosystem and results in the deaths of fish and other aquatic creatures.
In a nutshell, Bitcoin mining is degrading our climate. It can benefit individuals but in the long run, it damages our environment. It brings an irreparable loss to our climate which is a great threat to our earth. Bitcoin currency needs a replacement by green cryptocurrencies to ensure human survival on earth.
