Is Bitcoin Inherently Bad For The Environment?

Is Bitcoin Inherently Bad For The Environment?

Woman hands holding a paper sheet with Bitcoin symbol in the middle of the nature with a river ... [+] flowing near the forest. Eco crypto and digital currency concept. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have an energy and environmental problem. But if done right, it might be possible to channel all that energy into something good for the planet. A fierce debate around the environmental impacts of cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, is growing. Bitcoin does consume a lot of energy. That energy use is growing and annually consumes as much energy as whole nations, such as Finland, Malaysia, or Sweden. While bitcoin is not the only industry to consume as much energy as entire countries, e. g. concrete consumes more energy than India, the energy both sectors consume comes with associated pollution, including carbon emissions. Even transactions with bitcoin use a lot of energy, with the average transaction consuming over 1, 700 kWh of electricity, which is almost twice the monthly amount used by the average U. S. home. However, there was ways to transact in bitcoin using much less energy. Exacerbating this problem, some bitcoin mining operations have teamed up with struggling fossil fuel power plants, keeping some power plants