Cryptocurrency mining generated over 85.8 million tons of CO2 emissions

UN experts have studied the consequences of bitcoin mining during the mining boom of 2020-2021. They came to the conclusion that the production of cryptocurrency led to the release of over 85.8 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, while humanity lost access to 1.65 billion tons of clean drinking water. This was reported by the press service of the United Nations University (UNU). The study was published Tuesday in the scientific journal Earth's Future.

"The global bitcoin mining network consumed about 173 terawatts of electricity during the mining boom. If this network were a country, then it would rank 27th in the world in terms of energy consumption and would be comparable in this regard to Pakistan. Over 67% of this electricity was produced with the help of thermal power plants, whose total emissions into the atmosphere exceeded 85.8 million tons ofCO2," the report says.

This is the conclusion reached by a group of climatologists and environmentalists led by UNU professor Kaveh Madani while studying the consequences of the cryptocurrency mining boom, which began in 2020 and ended in late 2021 - early 2022. During this period, the price of Bitcoin, the key cryptocurrency, quadrupled, triggering a "cryptocurrency fever" on a global level.

UN experts studied what resources were then used to obtain bitcoins in 76 countries of the world, where they were actively mined. The analysis showed that bitcoin mining was associated not only with high electricity costs, but also with the release of 85.8 million tons ofCO2 into the atmosphere, as well as the loss of 1.65 billion tons of clean drinking water.

About half of these emissions, 40 million tons ofCO2, and lost volumes of water come from China, which led the way in bitcoin mining before the Chinese government began introducing measures to limit cryptocurrency mining in May 2021. The top ten in terms of cryptocurrency emissions also includes the United States, where a significant part of the mining capacity was transported after the introduction of bans in China, as well as Kazakhstan, Russia, Malaysia, Canada, Singapore and some other countries.

Professor Madani and his colleagues estimate that the top ten bitcoin producing countries account for about 92-94% of the carbon dioxide emissions and water losses associated with cryptocurrency generation. For this reason, UN experts suggest that the regulatory authorities of these states work out measures that would take into account the impact of mining on the climate and the environment and control that cryptocurrency producers compensate for the damage they cause to nature.

It is claimed that...
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... Cryptocurrency mining has a detrimental effect on the global environment. Since this "extraction" irrationally uses energy resources and, as a result, exacerbates the greenhouse effect.
 
But really?
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The main environmental complaint against miners is related to the amount and features of energy consumption.

First of all, cryptocurrency mining needs large amounts of energy. Without going into technical details, the machine solves the same type of mathematical problems. Solving the problem means creating a block of the blockchain system. For the creation of a block, the miner receives a fee — the network cryptocurrency. Since mining is finite — for example, the number of bitcoins is limited — the more cryptocurrency is mined, the more difficult it is to get a new one. This and the high price motivate miners to use more and more machines. And the more machines you have, the more electricity you consume. Since 2009, the energy intensity of mining equipment has increased from 300 Wh on a PC to 4 kWh, which means that such a machine consumes 2,880 kWh per month.  TWh per year to mine bitcoins today, which is about the same amount of electricity consumed by the Philippines, Belgium or Finland.

The second problem is that most miners use up energy that is generated by fossil fuels. According to a study by the University of Cambridge, as of January 2022, carbon fuels (gas, coal, and oil) accounted for 62.41% of the energy sources used to generate Bitcoin. According to some estimates, the carbon footprint of mining is comparable to that of Sweden and exceeds the levels of Serbia and Portugal, but the comparison is built on a number of assumptions, and the country's carbon footprint depends on internal factors, which also need to be kept in mind. In the spring of 2021, the authors of the journal Nature Communication predicted that by 2024, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the operation of mining farms in China will exceed the total amount of the same emissions in the Czech Republic and Qatar.

A report by Coinshares states that energy consumption will decrease significantly after 2040, when 99% of all bitcoins will be mined. Its mining will actually be completed, and the energy will only be required to settle Bitcoin transactions. But until then, miners, on the contrary, plan to increase the indicators.

In addition, cryptocurrency mining comes with technological waste. The problem is the rapid obsolescence of devices. After all, the more cryptocurrencies are mined, the more complex the calculations and, accordingly, the more energy-intensive the machines must be. In his study, crypto enthusiast and founder of the Digiconomist portal, Alex de Vries, writes that bitcoin passes through 16,442 metric tons of mining equipment every year and a half, so the annual generation of e-waste is 10,948 tons.
 
What's the bottom line?
 

Cryptocurrency mining as a global industry, of course, has a carbon footprint correlated with some countries and harms the environment due to the large amounts of energy consumed. But no less harmful, for example, is any branch of heavy industry. The most effective method of curbing this negative impact today is considered to be the use of renewable energy sources and associated fuels.