The environmental cost of mining Bitcoin – the technological process by which the famous cryptocurrency is obtained – is slightly higher to the meat industryaccording to a study published this Thursday in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.
This represents about 35% of its market value between 2016 and 2021. By comparison, the meat industry had an environmental cost of 33% of its market value during the same period, while that of oil or natural gas production exceeded 40%.
To calculate it, the researchers compared estimates of the economic damage caused by the polluting emissions produced by Bitcoin mining with the market value of the cryptocurrency, which was about $960 billion at the end of 2021.
As part of their study, they found that, in 2020 alone, Bitcoin production used more than 75 terawatt hours per yearan amount greater than the energy consumed by Austria or Portugal.
Additionally, the authors measured the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining according to two other criteria: whether its market price exceeds the economic cost of its environmental damage, and whether its climate impact has grown over time.
In the first field, the researchers saw that, in 2020, every US dollar worth of Bitcoin produced $1.56 of environmental damage.
In a second, observed a clear increase in the climate costs of Bitcoin mining, which went from emitting 0.9 tons of polluting gases per coin in 2016 to 113 tons in 2021.
The authors hope that this data will serve as a spur to legislators around the world to approve measures to regulate the mining of cryptocurrencies.
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