Even though Bitcoin mining may have a big impact on our environment, it is not necessarily bad for it, as most of the energy consumed by miners is renewable. In fact, the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies might boost the renewable energy industry, too.
If you have been following the news lately, then you probably know that Bitcoin has recently skyrocketed in popularity. Not that previously it was unheard of, but currently, even people who even a couple of months ago were not familiar with the subject of cryptocurrencies have become interested and maybe even started mining Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies out there. On top of that, it is safe to say that many people out there started wondering how to buy bitcoin in Germany, Canada, or Poland.
If you belong to either of these groups, you might be kind of concerned with Bitcoin. It might not be because of hackers, but instead of the impact on the environment that Bitcoin mining has. Is it really as bad as some people say it is? Let’s find out!
Bitcoin mining has a big energy footprint
Numerous studies have been carried out to assess the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining. Research has shown that the Bitcoin network is consuming more power than Argentina, and it accounts for less than one percent of the electricity consumption of the entire world.
This is an extremely high amount, considering that the network is made up of numerous other altcoins and tokens. However, Bitcoin alone makes up almost half of the daily electricity consumption in the entire crypto industry.
Still, in spite of this large amount of energy, it is not necessarily bad for the environment. The reason for this is that most of the electricity that is being consumed by miners is renewable energy. Why is that the case?
Many miners may be using renewable energy because they are based in the countries where this type of energy is readily available. For example, Iceland uses geothermal and hydropower to supply its citizens with electricity.
However, a large chunk of miners are still using non-renewable energy. This kind of energy is bad for the environment, as you are adding your carbon footprint to the pollution problem. The question is: how can you avoid contributing to such pollution?
Miners need to find ways to use renewable energy
It is unclear why that many miners are still using non-renewable energy. One possibility is that some of these miners have no choice but to use non-renewable energy due to the location of their mining facilities or because they simply do not have access to renewable energy. On the other hand, some miners may be using non-renewable energy because they are not interested in finding solutions to combat climate change.
If you join the group of people who are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint, you should know that there are a few things you can do to help with this. For example, you could switch to mining coins that require less energy to mine. Other than that, you could start using renewable energy sources for your mining facility.
Overall, based on the data collected by various studies, we can see that most miners are not causing any harm to the environment with their actions. But even though there are plenty of miners who are using clean energy sources and fighting climate change, there are still those who want to stick with their old ways and continue using non-renewable energy sources. It seems like it is time for them to realize that there are better options out there.
How can you reduce the carbon footprint of Bitcoin mining?
Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process, and you cannot avoid the fact that you will be using a lot of electricity. However, there are things that you can do to reduce the impact on the environment.
The first thing that you can do is to use renewable energy sources instead of non-renewable ones. There are many ways to do this, but the two most effective ones are either building your own mine or joining a mining pool.
Building your own mine has its benefits. First of all, you will not have to depend on anyone else for your power supply. If you want to switch to renewable energy, you can do it yourself without having to convince anyone to do it.
However, there are also some disadvantages in building your own mine. First of all, this is an expensive project that requires you to spend huge sums of money on equipment. Even more importantly, you need to have a large amount of space to place all of these machines.
Joining a mining pool is another option. This way, you will only have to pay for the electricity that is used by your specific machine instead of paying for all of the electricity consumed by the entire mining operation. Plus, since you are using someone else’s electricity, you do not need to worry about electricity costs either. The only disadvantage here is that you will only be using renewable energy if your mining pool uses it, too.
In conclusion
As you can see, even though Bitcoin mining may have a big impact on our environment, it is not necessarily bad for it, as most of the energy consumed by miners is renewable. In fact, the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies might boost the renewable energy industry, too.
However, this does not mean that you should not do your part in reducing the environmental impact that Bitcoin mining has at this very moment. If you want to do so and are a miner yourself, you should either switch to using renewable energy sources or find other ways of reducing your carbon footprint, such as using water cooling systems to cool your machines.
