Explained: Crypto and climate change, why digital tokens are flashing disaster signals

If the opposition of central bankers was not enough, crypto backers are now contending with environmentalists as a threat to the climate. With New York looking to outlaw some bitcoin mining; cryptocurrency's dirty secret -- energy consumption -- will take the center stage in the debate. Here are shocking facts about the new climate criminal in town-:

• A University of Cambridge analysis estimated that bitcoin mining consumes 121.36 terawatt-hours a year. This is more than all of Argentina consumes, or more than the consumption of Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft combined.
  
  
• Between 2015 and March of 2021, Bitcoin energy consumption increased almost 62-fold. According to Cambridge University, only 39 percent of this energy comes from renewable sources, and that is mostly from hydropower, which can have harmful impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity.
  
  
• Bitcoin, which dominates more than 40% of the crypto market, has a carbon footprint comparable to that of Chile, producing 91.58 megatons of CO2 annually, this is as per Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index.
  
  
• Bitcoin consumes around 192.80 TWh of power which is as much power as Thailand uses and most of this power is generated through coal, as experts say.
  
  
• The energy footprint of one bitcoin transaction is equivalent to 4.53 lakh payments on the Visa network.
  
  
• The Bitcoin network also generates significant quantities of electronic waste (e-waste). The reason for this is that Bitcoin mining is done with specialized (singular purpose) hardware, which becomes obsolete roughly every 1.5 years.
  
  
• Bitcoin’s annual electronic waste generation -- 30.7 metric kilotons or 272g per transaction on average -- is comparable to the small IT equipment waste produced by a country such as the Netherlands.

It was because of these very climate concerns that China cracked down on crypto mining hoping to reduce the enormous energy consumption that was working against China’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2060.

Also read/watch: Crypto Crushed! Flashback to when Malaysia destroyed 1000 Bitcoin mining rigs with a steamroller