Difference between revisions of "Cryptocurrency and its Impact on the Environment"

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	==Environmental Impact of Bitcoin==		==Environmental Impact of Bitcoin==
		+	Bitcoin is thought to consumer 707kwH per transaction, and according to a University of Cambridge analysis, it is estimated that bitcoin mining consumers 121.36 terawatt-hours a year, which is more than all of Argentina consumes, or more than the consumption of Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft combined <ref>20, R. C. |S., Cho, R., Dexfolio, J., S, E., Ishita, Nerad, S., Joad, T., &amp; Dallaire, L. (2021, September 16). Bitcoin's impacts on climate and the environment. State of the Planet. Retrieved January 28, 2022, from https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/09/20/bitcoins-impacts-on-climate-and-the-environment/ </ref>.
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	<ref name="Bitcoin Statistics"> “Bitcoin by Numbers: 21 Statistics That Reveal Growing Demand for the Cryptocurrency.” Bitcoin News, 13 Nov. 2017, https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-numbers-21-statistics-reveal-growing-demand-cryptocurrency/.</ref>.		<ref name="Bitcoin Statistics"> “Bitcoin by Numbers: 21 Statistics That Reveal Growing Demand for the Cryptocurrency.” Bitcoin News, 13 Nov. 2017, https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-numbers-21-statistics-reveal-growing-demand-cryptocurrency/.</ref>.

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Revision as of 19:15, 28 January 2022

C

ryptocurrency is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network which is not reliant on a central authority, such as a government or central bank, to uphold and maintain it. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology, which is a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. ^[1]. New cryptocurrencies are released through mining, which is the process of validating and recording new transactions within the blockchain. Miners must verify the validity of a number of bitcoin transactions which are then bundled into a block. This can include checking 20-30 different variables. The process of trying to come up with the right nonce that will generate the target hash is trial and error. With hundreds and thousands or more of computers churning out these guesses, some ethical concerns become the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from crypto mining ^[2].

Origins

In 2008, an anonymous person under the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakomoto, published a paper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System"^[3]. On January 3rd, 2009, Satoshi mined the genesis block of the Bitcoin blockchain. The Bitcoin protocol is open source code and has received contributions from numerous developers including, most notably, Hal Finney, Nick Szabo, and Gavin Andresen. In the years since, many other projects have been released that utilize Bitcoin's source code, as well as many other cryptocurrencies that have developed their own blockchain. These are known as altcoins.

Environmental Impact of Bitcoin

Bitcoin is thought to consumer 707kwH per transaction, and according to a University of Cambridge analysis, it is estimated that bitcoin mining consumers 121.36 terawatt-hours a year, which is more than all of Argentina consumes, or more than the consumption of Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft combined ^[4].

^[5].

References

1. ↑ https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp
2. ↑ https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/09/20/bitcoins-impacts-on-climate-and-the-environment/
3. ↑ Nakamoto, S. (2018). Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (pp. 1-9). www.bitcoin.org. Retrieved from https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
4. ↑ 20, R. C. |S., Cho, R., Dexfolio, J., S, E., Ishita, Nerad, S., Joad, T., & Dallaire, L. (2021, September 16). Bitcoin's impacts on climate and the environment. State of the Planet. Retrieved January 28, 2022, from https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/09/20/bitcoins-impacts-on-climate-and-the-environment/
5. ↑ “Bitcoin by Numbers: 21 Statistics That Reveal Growing Demand for the Cryptocurrency.” Bitcoin News, 13 Nov. 2017, https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-numbers-21-statistics-reveal-growing-demand-cryptocurrency/.