https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/business/bitcoin-mining-electricity-pollution.html
The analysis found that the 34 mines’ power use was causing nearly 16.4 million tons of carbon pollution each year.
The nonprofit tech company WattTime used data provided by The Times to calculate how much of the additional electric generation the operations required was met by fossil fuel plants, and the carbon emissions that resulted.
WattTime analysis, New York Times research• Power levels are as of March 9 and based on information from each company or its most recent prior public statement. Fossil fuel percentages do not include energy imported from other states, the type of which is unknown; that results in low numbers for the Merkle Standard mine in Usk, Wash., and the Atlas Power mine in Butte, Mont.
Zdroj: https://archive.ph/Yr5Xa
So-called mining is a fundamental part of the system: When a computer guesses correctly, it updates the ledger and collects six and a quarter new Bitcoins. Then the guessing game begins again.
Initially, hobbyists could win with personal computers, but as the value of each Bitcoin soared — from under $1,000 in 2017 to above $60,000 in 2021 — mining increasingly became an industrial endeavor. (The price has since dropped and, as of publication, was roughly $28,000.)
The only way for miners to better their odds is to add computing power, which requires more electricity. But as the number of guesses increases, the algorithm makes the game more difficult.
This has created an energy arms race.
