Bitcoin’s Power Consumption Is Not Its Achilles Heel

Bitcoin is even compatible with the fight against global warming.

Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

Since the emergence of Bitcoin in the eyes of the general public at the end of 2017, its detractors have constantly relied on the high electricity consumption required for the proper functioning of its Blockchain to criticize and denigrate it. According to these fierce opponents of Bitcoin, this electricity consumption of Bitcoin is its real Achilles heel that will prevent mass adoption by the general public in the future.

The problem is that the general public is now convinced that Bitcoin cannot go hand in hand with the fight against global warming. Thus, Bitcoin would not be good from an ecological point of view.

A recent study by Susanne Köhler and Massimo Pizzol at the University of Aalborg in Denmark contradicts what appear to be false assumptions. Indeed, the impacts of Bitcoin on the environment, and in particular the CO2 emissions induced by the operation of its Blockchain, would not be as catastrophic as claimed by its opponents.

I therefore propose that you return to a study that would confirm what Bitcoin advocates have been arguing for many months: Bitcoin’s electricity consumption is not its Achilles heel.