—
August 23, 2018
“Bitcoin miners want to remain profitable. It’s their business, after all. Though much of the focus in the ‘Bitcoin energy consumption scandal’ falls on how much energy is being used, there’s very little emphasis on where the energy comes from. This is actually the most important factor in the debate. Global energy consumption is on the rise, and so are fossil fuel prices.”Moreover:
“Bitcoin miners have been quick to identify this trend, and they are flocking to places like Iceland, Oregon, Washington State and Canada to take advantage of cheap power (that happens to be green).”Importantly:
“Moving forward, it’s clear that bitcoin miners have the power to drive innovation in the green energy sector, but the challenge will be convincing the two industries to work together. Though bitcoin is relatively new, it presents an excellent opportunity for energy producers to add a new source of revenue to their projects or even fund new technologies that could pay off down the line. Bitcoin certainly isn’t the evil ‘ocean boiling’ tech that it is made out to be, in fact, it may end up being just the opposite.”You can see the full article for yourself, here. So, what about FIAT? For this, we are turning to The Royal Mint, best known for the production of the Pound Sterling and currencies for around 60 countries across the world. This makes The Royal Mint the biggest currency manufacturer in the world. The Royal Mint have released a concise version of their 2016 - 2017 annual report, within which a huge bulk has been devoted to highlighting the Mint’s environmental performance throughout the year. Of course, The Royal Mint have a very clean environmental approach, but what I am trying to highlight here is that the production of all currency has an impact on the environment, not just cryptocurrency. The problem isn’t Bitcoin, the problem sadly is humans nature and desire to produce things, at the expense of the planet and our natural resources. You can see the Sustainability Report section of The Royal Mint Annual Report here. For the relevant section, skip to page 30. As stated, we’re not calling out The Royal Mint here for being environmentally damaging, in fact, they are doing a lot to reduce their impact but my point still rings true, the production of all money is harmful, it’s not just Bitcoin. According to the report:
“The Royal Mint, as part of its commitment to maintaining its ISO 14001 (2004) environmental management standard and the migration to ISO 14001 (2015) standard accreditation, reviews its significant environmental aspects and sets targets accordingly.”These targets include:
- “Reducing water consumption.”
- “Maintaining or improving on energy consumption across site.”
- “Monitoring waste production across site, ensuring steps are taken so that waste is not disposed of via landfill.”