The environmental impact of Bitcoin (BTC) is a hotly debated topic. Critics claim that Bitcoin is an ecological disaster, and proponents point to the sustainability of the bitcoin mining industry. What is relatively undiscussed in this discussion is the complete transparency of the energy consumption of the bitcoin mining sector.
Full transparency
In an interview with Decrypt, Jaime Leverton, CEO of the Canadian bitcoin mining company Hut 8, says that not only the transactions on the Bitcoin network, but also the energy consumption is transparent. All validated transactions are public and the energy consumption per validated block is known.
Bitcoin’s hashrate is fully known. This is the term used to indicate the collective computing power of the Bitcoin network. The transparency of the Bitcoin network also provides an unfiltered insight into the competition within the mining industry. This is not the case, for example, in the traditional banking sector.
“It’s easy to see how much energy is used by Bitcoin miners because it’s publicly available, whereas you can’t see how much energy is used by the traditional fiat banking system, or by hard metal mining, as an example.” @Hut8Mining CEO @JaimeLeverton: https://t.co/sCwzqR2Af4
— gm from Decrypt (@gmdecrypt) April 7, 2023
“It is easy to see how much energy is being used by bitcoin miners because it is publicly available information. However, you cannot see how much energy is consumed in the traditional fiat banking sector or in the mining sector.”
According to Leverton, who believes that there would be no discussion about the impact of bitcoin mining if the energy consumption data were not known. Transparency is, as it were, a double-edged sword. A force, and a target for criticism.
“We don’t talk about how much energy the gaming sector consumes, for example. Or about the value that gaming adds to society. We simply assume that it consumes a lot of energy, but we have no valuable discussions about it.”
Bitcoin mining is becoming more and more sustainable
Despite the ongoing debate, as mentioned before, bitcoin mining is becoming more and more sustainable. According to a recent study, more than half of consumption now comes from renewable sources.
In fact, in the first two months of 2023, more than 90 percent of the hashrate was reportedly sustainable. On closer inspection, the criticism of bitcoin mining as an environmental polluter often turns out to have little foothold. Bitcoin mining is said to be more sustainable than any other major industry on earth, according to research, and is also rapidly becoming greener.