Consumption in a year equal to half the electricity used in Italy, the water needed by 300 million farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and 3.9 billion trees would be needed to balance emissions: this is the impact of the production of Bitcoin, the first and more widespread than cryptocurrencies. The impact of so-called mining, i.e. the processes necessary to keep the Bitcoin network operational, is measured by the study carried out by Kaveh Madani, of the United Nations University, and published in the journal Earth’s Future.
Cryptocurrencies have now taken on an important role in the world economy, particularly in financial markets and trading, and despite some recent devaluations they continue to grow but their production, or more precisely mining, also has a large environmental impact. The study carried out by the academic arm of the United Nations focused in particular on Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency and by far the most widespread, whose existence is based on a mechanism known as mining, an IT process necessary to validate transactions and which allows the constant growth of the network but which requires high energy consumption.
The data referring to the period 2020-2021 indicates that Bitcoin mining consumed 173.42 Terawatt hours of electricity (Italy consumes 295), if it were a nation it would be the 27th in the world, above Pakistan where 230 million people live .
An environmental footprint of carbon emissions equivalent to 190 natural gas power plants which should be offset by the planting of 3.9 billion trees, 7% of the Amazon forest, and water consumption equal to the use of 300 million people from sub-Saharan Africa. The study also highlights that most of the energy used for Bitcoin mining comes from fossil sources, 45% from coal and 21% from natural gas and the bulk of the activities are concentrated in China.
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I am a journalist with over 6 years of experience working in the news industry. I currently work as an author for Global Happenings, and my coverage focuses on Technology news. I have written for various publications, including Reuters, The New York Times and The Guardian.
