All that mined is not green: Bitcoin’s carbon footprint hard to estimate

Cointelegraph

Published Apr 10, 2021 09:37AM ET

Updated Apr 11, 2021 12:00PM ET

The debate around the environmental impact of the Bitcoin mining ecosystem is heating up once again as academics have provided a fresh dose of perspective on the subject. In an opinion piece written by Noah Smith, a former assistant finance professor turned columnist, took aim at the Bitcoin (BTC) mining industry in March, suggesting that the constantly growing energy consumption of the network is simply unsustainable. Smith’s belief is that more countries will clamp down on Bitcoin mining as they use more power, given that the increasing price of BTC is always matched by rising hash rates.

While Coin Metrics founder Nic Carter has rebutted some of the points raised in Smith’s column, there still seems to be divided opinion around the amount of energy that Bitcoin mining draws, the sources of this energy and the carbon footprint that the industry has on the planet.

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