Member-only story

Is Crypto Really That Bad For The Environment?

Gal Mux
6 min readMay 4, 2022

--

Photo by Allison Saeng on Unsplash

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology have
taken the world by storm.

At only 13 years old, the entire crypto industry has reached a $2 trillion market cap. And that’s only with 5% of the global population in it! One can only predict how big it will go when more people embrace it.

As revolutionary and as promising as it is, the cryptoverse has not been devoid of criticism.

Other than many people feeling that it’s money created from thin air, that it’s easier to be used in fraudulent activities, etc many also posit that crypto has detrimental consequences to the environment.

This is mainly because of the process of mining it, particularly when using the proof of work system. Here, miners have to use several high powered computers to solve complex mathematical puzzles that allow the system to reward them with new coins after verifying transactions in the blockchain.

These high powered computers use a lot of electricity of course. It has been cited that the industry consumes more power than entire small countries such as the Netherlands.

With environmental issues such as global warming that the world is currently tackling, this is very alarming.

--

--

Gal Mux
Gal Mux

Written by Gal Mux

Lover of all things reading, writing, farms & gardens, 🥭&🍍salsas, laughter, crypto, MJ & Beyoncé. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/GalMux

No responses yet