Bitcoin Mining: Threat to Our Existence

Is Bitcoin a good or a bad thing? There are countries today that are relying on cryptocurrencies mainly because of economic problems. You have the likes of Venezuela that even launched their own cryptocurrency. And now, the cryptocurrency is supporting their new official currency.

In addition to this, there are those businesses that have adopted cryptocurrencies considering the popularity of blockchain in today’s world. However, the use of cryptocurrencies isn’t too simple. You have to consider the fact that the amount of electricity used in cryptocurrency mining can be a threat to the environment. One academic has claimed that it could actually reverse the efforts and gains made so far by regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Dr. Jon Truby who is the director of the Center for Law and Development at Qatar University, Bitcoin was designed without thinking about the possible environmental impact that it can do. He mentioned that it “threatens our existence”.

Similar Tech to Emerge

He believes that blockchain technology is here to stay. However, he is calling for more environmentally friendly designs. He said that “The problem will only worsen. The higher the value of Bitcoin, the greater the incentive to mine, and new digital currencies will be developed with similar carbonized models…” wrote Truby. “However, as the underlying technology can offer significant benefits, it is here to stay, so future models must be designed without reliance on energy consumption so disproportionate to their economic or social benefits”.

He does have a suggested solution for this particular problem. In fact, he made a paper that was entitled ‘Decarbonizing Bitcoin: Law and policy choices for reducing the energy consumption of Blockchain technologies and digital currencies’

Regulatory Changes

He is also suggesting that governments take the lead towards introducing regulations that will prevent future developers from creating blockchains that will exceed a particular level of carbon emissions per gigahash.

He is also calling to incentivize efforts towards greener blockchain projects. He said that “The goal of any intervention focused upon the machinery would be to indirectly impact upon the behavior of developers, motivating them to amend the model of existing and particularly future systems towards a less polluting and more sustainable transaction verification model”.

However, he believes that this can be quite challenging. Though there are already greener mining options, there is still a long way to go for the industry.

Places Where Crypto Miners Typically Operate

Right now, there are places that have shunned away from crypto miners mainly because of its energy-intensive activity. In fact, according to studies, Bitcoin mining worldwide is already enough to power an entire country. You have countries such as China and Russia that have gained the attention of crypto miners mainly due to the cold weather and its low electrical fees.

Quebec is a province in Canada that is recently inviting crypto miners. After lifting its ban on crypto miners, Quebec has received a good number of applications, especially from Chinese crypto miners. Quebec regulators decided to charge a higher fee on miners that are going to operate in the area.