Bitcoin causes 98 million tonnes of CO2 per year
Keystone-SDA
The Bitcoin network currently has a carbon footprint more than twice as large as that of Switzerland. This is shown by figures from the crypto portal Digiconomist.
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Calculated on an annual basis, the network of the popular cryptocurrency currently generates 98 million tonnes of CO2. By comparison, Switzerland’s greenhouse gas emissions recently amounted to around 41 million tonnes per year.
According to the portal, a single Bitcoin transaction currently causes as much CO2 as watching around 105,000 hours of YouTube videos – or processing 1.4 million Visa transactions.
The Bitcoin network is based on blockchain technology. The challenge is to validate transactions on the blockchain in a forgery-proof manner.
So far, the “proof-of-work” method has been used for these systems. This involves solving complicated cryptographic puzzles, which ultimately generate bitcoins. This process is also known as “mining”.
In mining, many players compete with each other, but only one ultimately wins. This consumes a lot of electricity. This often comes from fossil fuel sources, which leads to high CO2 emissions.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
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