• Home
  • Blockchain
  • Crypto
  • Defi
  • NFT
  • Trading
  • World News
  • Contact
What's Hot

Turkey’s Defense Industry Experiences Rapid Growth and Record Arms Exports

March 28, 2023

How Rising Tobacco Prices are Affecting Smoking Cessation Around the World

March 8, 2023

Is it possible to buy NFT and help the Ukrainian army at the same time?

February 17, 2023
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Home
  • Blockchain
  • Crypto
  • Defi
  • NFT
  • Trading
  • World News
  • Contact
CryptodailyNews24
  • Home
  • Blockchain
  • Crypto
  • Defi
  • NFT
  • Trading
  • World News
  • Contact
CryptodailyNews24
Home»Crypto»Bitcoin mining and warming toward catastrophe?
Crypto

Bitcoin mining and warming toward catastrophe?

Donald MunnBy Donald MunnAugust 5, 2022Updated:September 29, 2022No Comments3 Mins Read
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

Recent research by BanklessTimes claims that Bitcoin mining could raise the global temperature by 2 degrees by 2040. 

However, there is a glaring error in the reasoning behind this projection. 

The BanklessTimes analysis concluded that on average, a single Bitcoin transaction produces about 841 kilograms of CO2, and that this figure will surely increase in the future with increased Bitcoin adoption.  

However, this claim is based on a misinterpretation of Bitcoin’s energy consumption that denotes a lack of knowledge of how it actually works. In fact, the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining does not depend on the number of transactions at all. 

Correlation between the number of transactions and energy requirements required by Bitcoin mining

The research puts the cause of a possible warming to the number of transactions, and not to the total hashrate of the network

The calculation of “average consumption per transaction” is a mere curiosity, absolutely not suitable for making predictions, as it is nothing more than the total consumption of mining divided by the number of transactions. 

Instead, the energy consumption of mining depends solely on the convenience that miners have in consuming, and it is inevitably going to decrease. In fact, every four years or so the BTC reward that is given to those who succeed in mining a block is halved, thus also decreasing the profitability of mining. This completely disregards the number of transactions that are recorded in a block, which moreover is already limited to date. 

The greatest growth is being seen in off-chain transactions, which are those that do not require mining to be confirmed because they take place on the Lightning Network. 

It is enough to think that currently, with Bitcoin’s price above $20,000, for months the average number of transactions recorded on Bitcoin’s blockchain has been around 250,000 almost constantly now. Two years ago, when the price was largely lower, the average daily number of transactions during this period was higher, over 300,000. 

Increase in transactions on Bitcoin’s layer 2

Therefore, not only is it completely wrong to say that as the use of Bitcoin inevitably increases, energy consumption should also increase, but it is also completely wrong to forget that the number of transactions on Bitcoin’s blockchain has been decreasing since those on Lightning Network are increasing. 

Therefore, those who are talking about “catastrophe” in light of BanklessTimes’ incorrect estimate are mistaken. 

For sure, Bitcoin mining consumes a lot of energy, and since a significant portion of that is produced from fossil fuels, inevitably this means that Bitcoin mining as a whole emits CO2. 

However, the same BanklessTimes report states that 57% of the energy used for Bitcoin mining comes from renewable sources, thus at essentially zero CO2 emissions, and that even traditional fiat currencies have an environmental impact that is by no means negligible. 

Throw in the fact that over the next few decades at some point the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining should actually begin to decline, coupled with the fact that the share of clean energy used may increase even further, and so the future outlook not only does not look bad, it could even look good. 

The post Bitcoin mining and warming toward catastrophe? appeared first on cryptodailynews24.com.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Donald Munn
Donald Munn
  • Website

Related Posts

The best PR films to inspire your crypto marketing strategy

January 2, 2023

Japan: tax breaks proposed for crypto investors

September 1, 2022

Bitcoin may have hit its low after Powell’s speech

September 1, 2022

Ripple’s plans to tokenize land in Colombia did not take off

September 1, 2022
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Advertisement
Top Posts

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest sports news from SportsSite about soccer, football and tennis.

The latest news about Bitcoin, ICO, blockchain and fintech.

Top Insights

Turkey’s Defense Industry Experiences Rapid Growth and Record Arms Exports

March 28, 2023

How Rising Tobacco Prices are Affecting Smoking Cessation Around the World

March 8, 2023

Is it possible to buy NFT and help the Ukrainian army at the same time?

February 17, 2023
Get Informed

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

  • Home
  • Blockchain
  • Crypto
  • Defi
  • NFT
  • Trading
  • World News
  • Contact
© 2023 cryptodailynews24.com Submit news release

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.