Remember when Bitcoin’s energy consumption was going to destroy the world? It turns out that the planet’s demise at the hands of crypto miners may have been greatly exaggerated. Bitmain’s recent financial filings and a new change in in how a much-touted number, the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, is calculated should allay fears that crypto will singlehandedly destroy our planet.
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Bitcoin can’t destroy the world if most people continue ignoring it
Reports about the world’s death from Bitcoin might be greatly exaggerated
Bitcoin’s white paper came out a decade ago this week, and perhaps a positive sign of its success is this week’s big, dire headline: “Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2°C.” However, there’s a problem (or, perhaps, not really a problem): the paper was written with the assumption that the Bitcoin bulls and HODL bros are right. Reality may say otherwise, to the benefit of the global environment. Written by seven academics at the University of Hawai‘i and published by Nature, the piece used a significant part of Alex de Vries’ work on his site, Digiconomist. De Vries has been sounding the alarm regarding Bitcoin’s threat to the…
