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And the scale of this waste has some scary numbers attached to it. A single bitcoin transaction alone consumes 621 KWh, or half a million times more energy consumption than a credit card payment. (8/)
The bitcoin network annually wastes 78 TWh (terrawatt hours) annually or the energy consumption of several *million* US households.
WolframAlpha gives some scary comparisons to help you relate to how much energy this is (think nuclear weapons). (9/) https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=77.78+terrawatt+hours
WolframAlpha gives some scary comparisons to help you relate to how much energy this is (think nuclear weapons). (9/) https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=77.78+terrawatt+hours
Unlike other economic activities, the bitcoin scheme produces absolutely nothing for all this waste. It is a pure speculative activity of people gambling on the random movements of prices and the only output is simply shuffling numbers around in a computer at insane cost. (10/)
In addition to the energy waste and CO2 emitted, the mining process itself requires constant replacement of hardware and produces a steady stream of waste from broken and exhausted computer parts. All of which are full of toxins and rare earth metals. (11/)
The network produces 11.27 kilotons of waste annually or 96 grams of electronic waste per transaction. This is the equivalent annual e-waste as several small countries and equivalent to the waste of 482,456 people living at the German standard. (12/)
Try to imagine a future where paying for your morning coffee involved smashing an iPhone and burning enough fossil fuels to run your entire household for 60 days. That's the environmental cost of the "revolutionary" technology behind #Bitcoin 
in a nutshell. (13/)
in a nutshell. (13/)
Climate scientists have estimated that #Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2°C. And this is just one of *hundreds* of other cryptocurrency networks that run on this apocalyptically wasteful set of ideas. (14/) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0321-8
emissions alone could push global warming above 2°C. And this is just one of *hundreds* of other cryptocurrency networks that run on this apocalyptically wasteful set of ideas. (14/) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0321-8
Climate change is not some abstract threat happening elsewhere, it is very real, and is happening everywhere we chose to invest in unsustainable and wasteful technology.
The absurd waste of bitcoin is a simultaneously both an environmental and a moral disaster. (15/)
The absurd waste of bitcoin is a simultaneously both an environmental and a moral disaster. (15/)
Stephen, this is really bad, how can I help change this?
* Don't buy bitcoins.
* Tell friends not to buy bitcoins.
* Consider ethics of holding dirty companies ($MSTR, $SI, $SQ, $PYPL, Coinbase) in your portfolio.
* ... and products (funds, ETFs, etc) with crypto exposure.
/fin
* Don't buy bitcoins.
* Tell friends not to buy bitcoins.
* Consider ethics of holding dirty companies ($MSTR, $SI, $SQ, $PYPL, Coinbase) in your portfolio.
* ... and products (funds, ETFs, etc) with crypto exposure.
/fin
As a final aside, this is very politically solvable. In the next administration Biden could stop the Bitcoin Waste Problem with the stroke of a pen.
Banning US persons from trading these digital investment contracts is well within the powers of executive branch.
/done
Banning US persons from trading these digital investment contracts is well within the powers of executive branch.
/done
