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Studio shot of a virtual currency Bitcoin with an electronic circuit background / computer. Russia, Moscow
Only the bitcoin could push global temperatures above the catastrophic threshold of 2% C by 2034 if the cryptocurrency is adopted at the same rate as other widely used technologies, a new report in the journal states Nature Climate Change.
You are forgiven if you are not familiar with a digital currency that could devastate the planet alone. "Six months ago I was not myself," says Camilo Mora, principal author of the study. When the co-author, Katie Taladay, first proposed to analyze the emissions of Bitcoin, Mora thought he was joking. "I thought it was a videogame". What came from the analysis revealed the research team. From the card: & nbsp;"Reduce emissions to keep heating below 2 ° C; C is already considered a very difficult challenge due to the increase in the human population and consumption, as well as a lack of political will. Then Bitcoin arrived. "
*Critics of this report & nbsp;. point to how difficult it is to calculate energy consumption due to the dispersion of the Bitcoin network & nbsp; Also indicate the efforts of the IT industry & nbsp; in reducing its size.
It is certainly very probable that tomorrow we will create a new technology that produces electricity without emissions, "says Mora." But it is possible that we do not. Are we willing to bet when the stakes are the viability of our planet? According to the World Energy Outlook (WEO) of the International Energy Agency, between 55 and 65% of electricity by 2040 can still be produced from coal, gas and oil. So the decarbonisation of electricity is something we should push more, but complete conversion is still far away. "& Nbsp;
Critics of this analysis also say that it is not the case that energy consumption will remain fixed over the next 100 years. However, the urgency of the report underlines the impact that Bitcoin could have over the next 16-23 years suggesting that Bitcoin (and probably every area that affects climate change) may have to act much faster to reduce carbon emissions.
The estimated emissions produced by Bitcoin only last year are 69 million tons of CO2. Mora calls the amazing numbers. "This is the source of concern for us. If this [technology] it's so insignificant and the footprint is so big, can you imagine if this thing should take off? "As Bitcoin gains popularity, its energy demands increase dramatically. & Nbsp;"We do not have a single thing – not agriculture, not transport – that we can think that in two decades it would be enough to heat the planet by two degrees. But Bitcoin can. "
What is causing the explosion of emissions?
The Bitcoin miners are the reason for the bad energy report. Bitcoin does not have a central bank. It is a decentralized peer-to-peer network for digital currency. Bitcoin purchases generate blocks of data. It's like a folder with a complicated math problem inside as a key. A miner is simply anyone who wishes to join the Bitcoin network and possesses powerful Bitcoin processing hardware necessary to support software that can solve the key and verify Bitcoin. This makes Bitcoin extremely difficult to counterfeit. As a compensation to provide this computationally intensive level of security, miners receive a percentage of the Bitcoins they verify. But verification requires an enormous amount of energy and, with the broader adoption of Bitcoin, energy demands increase dangerously. The current analysis suggests data on mining for profit are even more destructive for the planet than the mining exploitation of the planet itself.
Research methods
The researchers incorporated the previous peer-reviewed methods from Digiconomist in their analysis and track the energy efficiency of the hardware used for the extraction of Bitcoins with the geographic position of the miners and the CO2 emissions of electricity production in those regions.
Another of the journal's authors, Randi Rollins, says their terrible estimates are rather conservative. The hardware requirements for the extraction of Bitcoin generate a lot of heat. The energy needed to cool the Bitcoin mining platforms has not even been considered in emissions estimates.
Is there any chance that Bitcoin and the planet can survive?
Bitcoin is public and transparent. There is no control process for miners. Anyone can become one. That's why there are no emission standards applicable to miners. It may seem that Bitcoin is an ecological failure in a global context Libertarian experiment. Ironically, many Bitcoin advocates who support libertarian values say that it is up to governments, not Bitcoins, to impose standards that require the implementation of renewable energy technologies to reduce emissions. One argument can be made that the trajectory of Bitcoin emissions is no longer Bitcoin's fault as it is the fault of humanity not to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. The authors of today's document claim that, given its impact, Bitcoin must take an active role in solving the problem. One possible way for Bitcoin to reduce its footprint would be to make the keys easier to solve. But this could potentially leave the currency more vulnerable to counterfeiting. And if it is easier to solve, more miners enter the market, maintaining or increasing the footprint of emissions as they increase adoption.
We can not predict the future of Bitcoin, but if implemented at a pace even close to the slower pace with which other technologies have been incorporated, it will mark bad news for climate change and for the people and species that have been affected, " says Mora away Press release. "With the ever-increasing devastation created by dangerous climatic conditions, humanity is facing the fact that climate change is as real and personal as possible, clearly any further development of cryptocurrencies should critically aim to reduce the demand for electricity, if we want to avoid the potentially devastating consequences of the 2 ° C of global warming."
* Updated October 29, 2017 at 16:00 PST
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Studio shot of a virtual currency Bitcoin with an electronic circuit background / computer. Russia, Moscow
Only bitcoin could push global temperatures above the catastrophic 2 ° C threshold by 2034 if the cryptocurrency is adopted at the same rate as other widely used technologies, a new report in the journal states Nature Climate Change.
You are forgiven if you are not familiar with a digital currency that could devastate the planet alone. "Six months ago I was not myself," says Camilo Mora, principal author of the study. When the co-author, Katie Taladay, first proposed to analyze the emissions of Bitcoin, Mora thought he was joking. "I thought it was a videogame". What came from the analysis revealed the research team. From the card: "Reducing emissions to keep heating below 2 ° C is already considered a very difficult challenge given the growing human population and consumption, as well as a lack of political will. Then Bitcoin arrived. "
* Critics of this report indicate how difficult it is to calculate energy consumption due to the dispersion of the Bitcoin network. They also indicate the efforts of the IT industry to reduce its footprint.
It is certainly very probable that tomorrow we will create a new technology that will produce electricity without emissions, "says Mora. But it is possible that we do not do it. Are we willing to bet when the stakes are the viability of our planet? According to the World Energy Outlook (WEO) of the International Energy Agency, between 55 and 65% of electricity by 2040 can still be produced from coal, gas and oil. So the decarbonisation of electricity is something we should push more, but complete conversion is still far away. "
Critics of this analysis also say that it is not the case that energy consumption will remain fixed in the next hundred years. However, the urgency of the report underlines the impact that Bitcoin could have over the next 16-23 years suggesting that Bitcoin (and probably every area that affects climate change) may have to act much faster to reduce carbon emissions.
The estimated emissions produced by Bitcoin only last year are 69 million tons of CO2. Mora calls the amazing numbers. "This is the source of concern for us. If this [technology] it's so insignificant and the footprint is so big, can you imagine if this thing should take off? "As Bitcoin gains popularity, its energy demands increase dramatically. "We do not have a single thing – not agriculture, not transport – that we can think that in two decades it would be enough to heat the planet by two degrees. But Bitcoin can. "
What is causing the explosion of emissions?
The Bitcoin miners are the reason for the bad energy report. Bitcoin does not have a central bank. It is a decentralized peer-to-peer network for digital currency. Bitcoin purchases generate blocks of data. It's like a folder with a complicated math problem inside as a key. A miner is simply anyone who wishes to join the Bitcoin network and possesses powerful Bitcoin processing hardware necessary to support software that can solve the key and verify Bitcoin. This makes Bitcoin extremely difficult to counterfeit. As a compensation to provide this computationally intensive level of security, miners receive a percentage of the Bitcoins they verify. But verification requires an enormous amount of energy and, with the broader adoption of Bitcoin, energy demands increase dangerously. The current analysis suggests data on mining for profit are even more destructive for the planet than the mining exploitation of the planet itself.
Research methods
The researchers incorporated the previous peer-reviewed methods from Digiconomist in their analysis and track the energy efficiency of the hardware used for the extraction of Bitcoins with the geographic position of the miners and the CO2 emissions of electricity production in those regions.
Another of the journal's authors, Randi Rollins, says their terrible estimates are rather conservative. The hardware requirements for the extraction of Bitcoin generate a lot of heat. The energy needed to cool the Bitcoin mining platforms has not even been considered in emissions estimates.
Is there any chance that Bitcoin and the planet can survive?
Bitcoin is public and transparent. There is no control process for miners. Anyone can become one. That's why there are no emission standards applicable to miners. It may seem that Bitcoin is an ecological failure in a global context Libertarian experiment. Ironically, many Bitcoin advocates who support libertarian values say that it is up to governments, not Bitcoins, to impose standards that require the implementation of renewable energy technologies to reduce emissions. One argument can be made that the trajectory of Bitcoin emissions is no longer Bitcoin's fault as it is the fault of humanity not to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. The authors of today's document claim that, given its impact, Bitcoin must take an active role in solving the problem. One possible way for Bitcoin to reduce its footprint would be to make the keys easier to solve. But this could potentially leave the currency more vulnerable to counterfeiting. And if it is easier to solve, more miners enter the market, maintaining or increasing the footprint of emissions as they increase adoption.
We can not predict the future of Bitcoin, but if implemented at a pace even close to the slower pace with which other technologies have been incorporated, it will create bad news for climate change and for the people and species affected by it, "says Mora via Press release. "With the ever-increasing devastation created by dangerous climatic conditions, humanity is facing the fact that climate change is as real and personal as possible, clearly any further development of cryptocurrencies should critically aim to reduce the demand for electricity, if we want to avoid the potentially devastating consequences of the 2 ° C of global warming."
* Updated October 29, 2017 at 16:00 PST
