By We’ve all be told by our parents to never gloat. Well, it seems that some environmentalists never took this advice to heart, as many are celebrating in glee with regards to the current crypto bear market, stating that it’s a sign that bitcoin is “becoming worthless” and “will soon be no more.” With many of them excitedly counting down the days to it’s supposed demise.
Ilana Strauss, a writer at TreeHugger had this to say:
“Bitcoin is a colossal waste of energy [and] will soon be no more. Good riddance…We’ve known bitcoin was dropping for a while, but the nails are really going in the coffin now.”
Strauss went on to state that she’s always hated the “imaginary currency” due to the fact that it takes a ridiculous amount of energy” to mine.
She wrote:
“In 2017, bitcoin mining took up more energy than 159 countries, 12 states in the US use less energy than bitcoin.”
Bitcoin Threatens The Existence Of Humankind:
Strauss also reiterated the sentiments of many other environmentalists, some of whom who have gone as far to claim that bitcoin mining is an existential threat to humanity.
Director of the Centre for Law and Development at Qatar University Jon Truby, claims that the massive amounts of electricity required for crypto mining will heighten greenhouse gas emissions and add to the pollution of the environment.
Truby wrote in a 2018 paper for the academic journal Energy Research & Social Science:
“Digital currency mining is the first major industry developed from blockchain, because its transactions alone consume more electricity than entire nations, it needs to be directed towards sustainability if it is to realize its potential advantages.”
On the opposite end of the argument, many others believe the crypto mining actually bears a far smaller environmental impact than that of legacy systems such as gold and fiat currencies as well as the fact that crypto electricity consumption is grossly over-hyped.
Truby also stated that bitcoin was developed with no prior consideration to the impact it has on the environment an as a result “threatens our existence.”
Furthermore, he also called for intervention by the government as to crypto mining and claimed that further development of the crypto and blockchain space should be combatted in an effort to reduce an apparent grave threat to the environment:
“Many developers have taken no account of the environmental impact of their designs, so we must encourage them to adopt consensus protocols that do not result in high emissions,taking no action means we are subsidizing high energy-consuming technology and causing future blockchain developers to follow the same harmful path.”
Bitcoin Is Important And Here To Stay:
With all that being said, Truby also stated that blockchain is an “important technology” which deserves further attention and development. In contrast to what the writer from TreeHugger stated, Truby believes that bitcoin isn’t going anywhere and that as a result, we should find a means to accommodate it.
He wrote:
“Bitcoin is here to stay, and so, future models must be designed without reliance on energy consumption so disproportionate on their economic or social benefits.”
Despite all these “grave warnings” from environmental activists, we all the know the crypto industry is still moving full steam ahead with regards to bitcoin and other digital currencies.
It’s been reported that Coinmint, a crypto mining firm, plans to invest up to a crazy $700 million in order to construct the world’s largest bitcoin mining HQ in upstate New York.
They have in fact already invested $50 million just in an effort to convert an old 1300 acre aluminum smelting plant in New York.
And in case anyone thinks this project is of a short-term nature, Coinmint has confirmed that they signed a 10-year lease on the property with the new mining farm set to begin operations as early as June 2019.
Do you believe that the energy required to mine cryptocurrencies are to be worried about? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment.
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