Despite facing several crypto winters, the ‘gold of the digital era- ’ and crypto has garnered a lot of attention around the globe. However, this attention has not always been positive. maker Satoshi Nakamoto presented as a hope for the human society which is tainted by fraud and corruption but it seems that the evolution has come with a price. A , a research engineer at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for The Nature International Journal of Science. In it, he mentioned that the energy and carbon costs for are three times the cost for gold and copper combined.
What is ?
Basically, crypto is the computational process of confirming and verifying a transaction and adding it to the public . The transaction is time-stamped and broadcasted to the network. miners are individuals or groups that perform computations on transactions. The fastest miner is rewarded with a commission from the pool for adding a new verified block to the .
Energy consumption: An issue for
uses the concept of Proof of Work (Pow) to validate transactions from , which is highly energy intensive. The research paper by Max Krause stated, that after taking out an average of all days falling in between 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2018, , , and required 17, 7, 7 and 14 MJ [megajoules], respectively to generate 1USD. On the other hand, it was estimated that aluminum, copper, gold, PGMs, and REOs required 122, 4, 5, 7 and 9 MJ [megajoules] to generate 1USD. As the graph suggests, consumes more than thrice the energy that is consumed by gold .
Source: Nature Sustainability
The researchers also stated that the estimated energy utilized by machine is likely at the lower end of the spectrum as the study did not include energy costs for cooling equipment used in crypto as well as maintenance and infrastructure costs.
affecting the environment
There have been countless instances when the global media and environment experts criticized the extravagant energy requirements of crypto . The recent criticism comes from a The report mentioned that the incorporation of at the slowest rate at which other technologies of the modern era have been incorporated would yield a cumulative emission enough to warm the planet above 2°C in just 22 years.
Given such adversaries, the arms race to mine shows no sign of ending. It is evident from the prevalent competition between the best miners across the globe to earn more Bitcoins faster. The study by Max Krause also stated that energy consumption by the will continue to rise in the future. The paper said, “While the market prices of the coins are quite volatile, the network hash rates for three of the four have trended consistently upward, suggesting that energy requirements will continue to increase.”
As the energy requirements increases, the costs incurred for also rises. This problem is being catered to by KIBIS is making an effort to decrease the costs incurred by crypto-currency by installing machines in their -based kiosks. These machines will automatically mine KIBIS without the assistance of a miner and are designed to consume less energy. Also, KIBIS will be strategically placing these machines in places where the electricity costs are less.
So what makes this expensive?
The reports predict that crypto is going to flourish in future but it seems that as miners compete to earn , the energy requirements will continue to accelerate. The exponential growth in price is a consequence of rising hash rate, which is a measure of a miners performance.. As the hash rate increases the chances of computing the mathematical puzzle required to earn also increases but along with it, the amount of energy required to run a machine also surges upwards.
Source:
Conclusion: vs Gold
maker Satoshi Nakamoto, offered the world with a whole new revolution to establish a transparent and efficient society. Naturally, is more flexible in terms of efficiency than gold because it can be mined anywhere in theory. This gives miners an opportunity to earn faster by moving to a place that offers the best energy efficiency.
However, we must remember the consequences of crypto . not only consumes a lot of energy, but it also leads to a bigger carbon footprint. Some measures are required to be taken to ensure that the costs incurred by crypto can be kept in check.
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Published at Wed, 03 Apr 2019 09:00:05 +0000
zerohedge.com / by Tyler Durden /