While blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency markets have drawn a mix of praise and pessimism for its ability to generate wealth seemingly from nowhere, the industry has drawn critics of a different creed: climate change advocates.
Bitcoin’s energy consumption has been steadily trickling up in line with the boom in the asset’s underlying price. According to estimates by the University of Cambridge, the Bitcoin network consumes somewhere in the region of 130 terawatt-hours per year, or around the same amount of energy as Argentina uses.
Bitcoin’s carbon footprint. IMAGE: CBECI
Bitcoin’s consumption has doubled in less than six months as more miners compete for rewards set by the network.
But more recently, the explosion in the buying and selling of NFTs has brought other networks under the carbon emission spotlight.
According to Digiconomist, Ethereum, the blockchain used by the majority of NFTs, consumes almost 30 terawatt-hours per year. That put’s the network’
Źródło: https://decrypt.co/63621/cryptos-carbon-emissions-problem-and-the-projects-trying-to-solve-it
