So much has been said about Bitcoin, Ethereum, cryptocurrency, and blockchain over the course of the past few years that it’s almost impossible to keep up with what’s fact, opinion, or a mixture of both. The blockchain industry moves fast, is always in flux, there’s so much at stake, and we’re still building a collective understanding between the vast and global spectrum of players involved. Further, in the digital media landscape in general, and specifically in the realm of cryptocurrency and blockchain media, there’s a trend towards sensationalism that makes gaining a nuanced understanding of important issues something of a challenge.

As the teams building out the infrastructure of a blockchain future work towards #Cryptospring and the next phase of blockchain development comes into view, a few fallacies linger on from blockchain’s salad days that are worth addressing. Some views are held by the general public, while others are more commonly uttered in the crypto-sphere, but here are the 6 biggest misconceptions about blockchain and cryptocurrency right now, and what’s being done that proves them wrong.

Cryptocurrency mining is bad for the environment

By now, you’re familiar with a popular narrative that often arises when discussing blockchain or cryptocurrency: that mining bitcoin via Proof-of-work algorithms consumes more energy than — insert emerging economy nation — and is contributing to the environmental downfall of the Earth.

There’s just one problem with these gleefully apocalyptic appraisals: all of the data upon which the entirety of this alarmist coverage is based was whittled up by an ethically suspect lone blogger who estimated his numbers, flubbed his methodology, and completely overlooked fundamental aspects of the issue at hand. A deep dive in Hackernoon by Robert Sharratt lays out just how badly your most trusted news sources got this in an excellent takedown — ’The Reports of Bitcoin Environmental Damage are Garbage.’ It’s a must-read.

A 2018 report by the World Economic Forum even identified 65 use cases for blockchain technology that will help the planet and the fight for environmentalism. Projects like the Bounty for Basura are creating new models for sustainability with blockchain. And as Ethereum development continues towards a Proof-of-Stake model that is far more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than the Proof-of-Work models that dominate blockchain technologies today, we’re moving towards a future where this issue will diminish.

Bitcoin is cryptocurrency is blockchain

If you’re reading this, the likelihood is that you’ve explained your interest in blockchain tech to someone, only to receive a blank stare in return until you drop the other ‘B’ word — Bitcoin. Although trends in this regard are moving fast in the right direction, many people still equate blockchain with cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency with Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin’s market dominance in regards to other tokens — near 100% for most of the currency’s existence — sits at 50%, down from 85% less than two years ago and up from a recent low of 33%. Although the crypto craze of 2017 has clearly diminished, it has laid the foundation for a global ecosystem of tokens that proves that there’s a lot more to cryptocurrency than just Bitcoin.

It’s also become evidently clear that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are just phase one in the long arc of blockchain, and technologies like Ethereum’s programmable smart contracts and decentralized apps are the future. Recent reports have indicated that Ethereum’s global developer base — the BUIDLers working on the infrastructure, solutions, dapps, and protocols of the network — is more than twice that of Bitcoin (and that’s a conservative estimation.)

Check the speeches of any of tech’s greatest figures and they’ll echo the same: the projects and industries with the most developers get the best results. That’s why sectors like decentralized finance, enterprise solutions, gaming, and media integrated with blockchain tech are flourishing already.