TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Bitcoin Mining Might Prevent China From Reaching Environmental Goals

Bitcoin Mining Might Prevent China From Reaching Environmental Goals

Bitcoin has been recently criticised for its carbon footprint due to the cryptocurrency’s high energy consumption, with even Bill Gates weighing in on the matter, calling it “not like a great climate thing."

If China’s Bitcoin industry continues to operate in the face of minimal policy intervention, it's expected to generate over 130 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2024, which would threaten China’s greenhouse emission reduction target, an analysis by a team led by Guan Dabo at Beijing's Tsinghua University suggests. The researchers say that the estimated emission output would put Bitcoin in the top 10 C02 polluters among 182 Chinese prefecture-level cities and 42 major industrial sectors.

Launched in early 2009, Bitcoin is the biggest cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalisation and the amount of data stored on its blockchain.

With the price of one Bitcoin now floating just below $60,000, mining the cryptocurrency is a profitable activity. The process relies on computers racing to solve a mathematical problem for each transaction – whichever solves it first and verifies the transaction creates a new coin. The supply of coins for mining is limited to 21 million – 18 million bitcoins had been mined as of February 2021.

Solving these equations is becoming more competitive and difficult as a growing number of people and computers laden with rapidly advancing tech try to crack them around the world.

The majority of mining is done in China, according to the study – miners in the country account for more than 75 percent of the Bitcoin network’s computational power as of April 2020 due to the proximity to manufacturers of specialised hardware and access to cheap electricity.

Due to the evolution of mining hardware and mining "farms," more and more electricity is being used by Bitcoin.

Previous studies suggested that the Bitcoin blockchain could consume as much energy per year as a small or even medium-sized country such as Denmark, Ireland, or Bangladesh.

The analysis, which was published in Nature, shows that if the annual energy consumption of the Bitcoin industry in China continues on its current trajectory under minimal policy intervention, it will peak in 2024 at 296.59 terawatt-hours of energy, which would exceed 2016's energy consumption levels of nations such as Italy or Saudi Arabia.

The analysis also includes several other projections, such as a scenario when the carbon tax is doubled, which decreases the amount of energy consumed by Bitcoin to 217.37 terawatt-hours.

There is also a market access scenario where profitable miners with low efficiency are banned from entering the Chinese market, plus a site regulation scenario, where miners in areas where electricity is coal-based are persuaded to relocate to areas with hydro-based energy.

Both of those scenarios indicate that the total energy consumption of the Bitcoin industry will reach 350.11 terawatt-hours and 319.80 terawatt-hours, respectively, in 2024 and 2025.

Emissions would grow correspondingly, according to the analysis, with the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin industry reaching 130.50 million metric tonnes per year in 2024 as per the “benchmark“ scenario.

The study suggests that without any policy interventions, Bitcoin carbon emissions would become a “non-negligible” barrier against China’s sustainability efforts, with the peak annual energy consumption and carbon emission of the Bitcoin operation in the country exceeding those of nations including Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, or the Czech Republic.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has set an environmental goal for the country’s economy, announcing that China wILL become carbon-neutral by 2060. China has been reducing its carbon footprint for years now, with policies that support hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. China is also the biggest electric vehicle market in the world.

However, last month, a study by the British research group Ember found that China accounted for 53 percent of coal-powered electricity worldwide, which made it the only G20 member to record a substantial increase in coal generation last year.

Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×