Cryptocurrency systems, based on blockchain technology, have opened an innovative way to exploit a decentralized economy of regulatory institutions. However, the environmental impact generated by mining some cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, is immense.
Blockchains are technological systems developed for recording transactions and tracking assets in a network. The technology works as a database that stores information in a safe way and accepted by all who are part of a certain network, which can be public or private and have different types of functioning.
+ Discover the 3 cryptocurrencies chosen by Elon Musk
+ There is some concern about the possible impact of cryptoactive volatility, says BC director
Thus, these systems work from consensus mechanisms: all users need to have a single view and accept shared information. In this way, the system avoids conflicts when entering transactions.
“A person issues two checks with the same balance: the first one that comes in has the balance, the second one doesn’t. A malicious person could send both on the blockchain network: if they are not conflicting operations it would not matter, but to avoid conflict, it is necessary to somehow order the data, the consensus mechanism: whoever solves the problem tells the network, not it is more possible to insert the second conflicting information”, explains Marcos Antônio Simplício Júnior, professor and researcher at the Laboratory of Architecture and Computer Networks (LARC-USP) of the Polytechnic School of USP.
This process of validating information in a network is called mining, which consists of solving mathematical problems that are difficult to solve, determined by the creators of the networks. However, the solving of the puzzles is done randomly, by trial and error, based on computer data processing.
Anyone who enters a block into the block network is rewarded with bitcoin, which attracts many professional miners. Earlier this year, each block integrated into the network generated 6.25 bitcoins, which results in 900 bitcoins a day – the income of all miners in a single day could reach R$243 million.
“To win the right to enter a transaction, mathematical problems are posed that require very large computational power. The more transactions entered into the blockchain, the more difficult this problem will be. Statistically, the probability of winning is random”, says the professor at the Department of Computer Engineering and Digital Systems at Poli-USP, Bruno Albertini.
In practice, anyone can carry out this mining process through a cell phone. However, the reward leads professional miners to invest heavily in computer “farms” with superprocessors that increase the speed of problem solving. In this way, those who have more computational and economic power are more likely to solve the puzzles and be paid.
The environmental issue
A new block is inserted by a user on the network every 10 minutes, but there are many other people trying to resolve the same issue. Thus, there is an immense waste of energy used in vain: computers aimed at mining cryptocurrencies use much more energy than ordinary computers.
“A lot of people try the same answer and test the key one by one. Anyone who doesn’t succeed will waste energy, since most cryptocurrencies have a low transaction rate and use a lot of energy – Bitcoin is particularly bad from an energy point of view”, points out Simplício Júnior.
According to researchers at the University of Cambridge, these computational processes consume about 121.36 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year, which is equivalent to 1 billion kilowatts, the annual energy consumption of Argentina, with 40 million inhabitants.
The website Digiconomist explains that the carbon emissions generated in just one year from the total processing of Bitcoins is 92.07 kilotonnes of carbon, comparable to Chile’s annual carbon emissions. The annual electricity consumption of Bitcoin is 193.82 TWh, similar to Thailand’s annual energy consumption.
A single Bitcoin transaction generates, adding the energy waste of unsuccessful miners: 910.96 kg of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 151,000 hours of videos on YouTube; 1917 kWh, equivalent to 65 days of electricity for an average American household.
You Ethereun pollution data, for example, are minor but still worrisome. In one year, the network of this cryptocurrency generates 89.11 TWh, comparable to the annual electricity consumption in Belgium. The annual carbon emission is 42.33 metric tons, similar to what the city of Hong Kong emits annually.
If it were a country, the Bitcoin network would be the 24th that consumes the most energy in the world.
The measurement of pollution generated by cryptocurrency networks considers geographic specificities. In southern China, for example, the use of coal as an energy raw material predominates, which is more polluting than petroleum derivatives. In an attempt (and with excuse) to reduce carbon emissions, the Chinese government in April this year banned the mining of cryptocurrencies.
Iran’s government reported in January this year that mining bitcoins and other cryptoactives has contributed to energy blackouts and the formation of dark clouds of pollution in Tehran.
One scientific article by Norwegian researchers, published by the journal Nature, points out that Bitcoin-related emissions alone can raise global warming by 2°C in less than 30 years.
O The New York Times points out that Bitcoin mining uses 0.5% of all energy consumed on Earth. The newspaper also indicates that the practice represents seven times the energy consumption of all of Google.
“Whoever implemented Bitcoin did an interesting experiment on how to decentralize the economy, but failed. The creators assumed the fault mainly in relation to energy”, emphasizes Simplício Júnior.
“This type of cryptocurrency (which results in great environmental impact) tends to die: the algorithm becomes difficult, there will be few miners in the world capable of solving the problems in a timely manner, it will become unfeasible. Bitcoin spends a lot of energy to sustain a network of a ballast cryptocurrency. Those who mine bitcoin do not think about the environment, but about the rate of return”, points out Albertini.
New perspectives
The unsustainability of Bitcoin does not mean that other cryptocurrencies with different blockchain systems cannot exist. New digital assets based on different backings (fiduciary currencies and commodities, for example), called stablecoins, have less financial volatility than most cryptoassets.
An example of the volatility of cryptocurrencies was the drop this week in the value of Bitcoin as a result of the $1 trillion infrastructure package signed by US President Joe Biden, which provides for the declaration of taxes on cryptocurrencies and the requirement for brokerages to reveal their clients. As a result, according to the English newspaper Independent, the general crypto market dropped US$ 200 million and reached the value of US$ 2.6 trillion – the historical maximum value registered was US$ 3 trillion, at the beginning of this month.
One of these initiatives that explore new blockchain concepts includes the Amazon 4.0 project, a new development model that reconciles technological potential with the benefit of local communities themselves. Funded by several institutions, including the WWF, the initiative promises an environmental and bioeconomic revolution in the exploitation of the forest with the concept of “an economy of knowledge of nature”, proposed by geographer Bertha Becker.
An example of how Amazonia 4.0 works is the creation of the so-called Creative Laboratories of the Amazon, which provide technology for use by the local population, such as DNA extraction and analysis devices (cost around US$ 2,000).
“We will have to switch to green cryptocurrencies from an energy perspective. Instead of spending money on an expedition to the Amazon, the locals do the DNA extraction, enter the blockchain system and enter the data. When someone buys this DNA, they will be paid. The person will receive not by consensus (like Bitcoin), but for contributing useful information and without wasting computational power. It is a blockchain applied to assets with intrinsic value, with real commercial value”, emphasizes Albertini, one of the researchers at USP who is developing the project.
“It is essential to expand the use of blockchains to other areas, with insertions that benefit the local community. These innovations have the ability to empower groups and populations without having to go through traditional (consensus) mechanisms. The Amazon 4.0 Project foresees a use for the good of these technologies”, concludes Antônio Mauro Saraiva, professor at the Department of Computer Engineering and Digital Systems at Poli-USP and organizer of the 2021 Annual Meeting on Planetary Health.
See too
+ Creator of the first real estate fund in Brazil tells everything about the investment
+ Fighter becomes unrecognizable after being kicked in the face
+ Amazon driver fired after woman caught driving out of backyard
+ The 20 best-selling pickup trucks in 2021
+ Video: Globo’s helicopter crash lands and loses tail; pilot prays after landing
+ Scientists discover causes of Alzheimer’s progression in the brain
+ Chef playmate creates aphrodisiac recipe for Orgasm Day
+ Mercedes-Benz Sprinter wins motorhome version
+ Anorexia, an eating disorder that can lead to death
+ US agency warns: never wash raw chicken meat
+ Yasmin Brunet breaks the silence
+ Shark is captured in MA with the remains of youngsters missing in the stomach
+ See how much it costs to eat at the MasterChef judges’ restaurants
+ Auction of cars and motorcycles from Kombi to Nissan Frontier 0km
#Understand #cryptocurrency #mining #environmental #disaster