New Study Shows That Bitcoin’s Carbon Footprint Is 70% Lower

November 28, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

Susanne Köhler and Massimo Pizzol at Aalborg University in Denmark questioned the fact that when mining Bitcoin, 63 megatons of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere per year.

According to their calculations in the report, the production of carbon dioxide in the extraction of the first cryptocurrency is actually lower by about 70% — 17.29 million tons per year. The previous estimate was based on the fact that in China, carbon dioxide emissions are about the same in different areas.

However, only 12.3% of capacity in China is located in the Inner Mongolia region, in which electricity is obtained from burning coal. A significant part of Bitcoin mining is concentrated in Sichuan province, which is rich in energy from hydroelectric power plants.

Image source: Susanne Köhler and Massimo Pizzol via The New Scientist

According to scientists, it is in China that almost half of all carbon dioxide produced during the extraction of the first cryptocurrency is emitted into the atmosphere. Also, significant contributions are made by Canada, Russia and the United States. Susanne Köhler noted:

“On the one hand, we have these alarmist voices saying we won’t hit the Paris agreement because of Bitcoin only. But on the other hand, there are a lot of voices from the Bitcoin community saying that most of the mining is done with green energy and that it’s not high impact.”

Scientists also emphasized that the production and disposal of mining equipment does not require so much energy, which is only 1% of the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted. The lion’s share is generated precisely because of the cryptocurrency mining itself.

Recently it was reported that the German company Northern Bitcoin, together with the American mining company Whinstone, will create the world’s largest cryptocurrency mining farm.

Author: Marko Vidrih