Some of the most bitcoin enthusiastic argue that the currency is ready to replace national currencies, or perhaps replace to clearinghouses of the World Bank. This would be good for the world?

According to Christopher Malmo, author of the Motherboard website, in his article the bitcoin is unsustainable responds to the question “from the point of view of the environment, of course, would not be a good new. Unfortunately for the bitcoin advocates, the currency uses too much electricity right now—way too much: according to my calculations, a single bitcoin transaction uses roughly enough electricity to power 1.57 U.S. households for a day”.

From its signs, another author of the website do the task of carrying out its own analysis, getting a little encouraging result. Because according to Sebastiaan Deetman, researcher environmental and enthusiastic of the Bitcoin, as he describes himself, he concluded that “if the bitcoin network keeps expanding the way it has done recently, it could lead to a continuous electricity consumption that lies between the output of a small power plant and the total consumption of a small country like Denmark by 2020.”

The current rate of extraction of bitcoins used approximately 350 megawatts, enough to power up 280,000 U.S. households. Also the bitcoin demand requires a network infrastructure mining that weighs over 10,000 metric tons. The miners are fundamental part of Bitcoin. These seekers of gold of the digital age managed network transactions through the resolution of complex mathematical problems. However, the huge amount of energy used in this data processing has become an object of debate and a possible environmental disaster.

Bitcoin network is already using an alarming amount of energy and in recent months there has been an important escalation of consumption. Joaquín Fenoy, CTO and founder of Bitchain, explained to HojaDeRouter.com that the number of machines connected to the network has increased fourfold in the last five months. Likewise Fenoy, said of a possible solution to the growing demand for energy: “if one day it will reach a level of unsustainable energy, a change into the algorithm of Bitcoin can be done to move on from the ‘proof of work’ to the ‘proof of stake’. If 51% of the network accepts this change, would be valid.”

Finally, Deetman concludes his study with 2 possible scenarios where the most optimistic of them tells us that “just mining one bitcoin in 2020 would require a shocking 5,500 kWh, or about half the annual electricity consumption of an American household. And even if we assume that by that time only half of that electricity is generated by fossil fuels, still over 4,000 kg of carbon dioxide would be emitted per bitcoin mined.”

It is important that this issue be taken in a serious way, the climatic consequences of this “technological development”, which many people think that it is beneficial, and in many ways it is, it could cause us other bigger problems. Do not allow to greed guide the reins of the bitcoin, something must be done, and it must be done soon.

What do you think of the environmental impact generated by the Bitcoin? Let us know!

Sources: Motherboard, elDiario.es

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