Bitcoin causes 90.93 million tons of CO2 per year
Published: Saturday, Apr 13th 2024, 07:50
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Bitcoin currently has twice the CO2 footprint of Switzerland. This is according to an analysis by the crypto portal Digiconomist.
Calculated on an annual basis, the cryptocurrency network currently causes 90.93 million tons of CO2. By comparison, Switzerland's greenhouse gas emissions recently amounted to around 45 million tons per year.
According to the portal, a single Bitcoin transaction currently generates as much CO2 as watching around 112,000 hours of YouTube videos - or processing 1.5 million Visa transactions.
The Bitcoin network is based on blockchain technology. The challenge is to validate transactions on the blockchain in a forgery-proof manner.
Up to now, the "proof of work" method has been used for these systems. This involves solving complicated cryptographic puzzles. The first person to crack the puzzle is allowed to write the next entry in the blockchain and receives a reward in the form of Bitcoin.
This process is also known as "mining" because it involves the "mining" of new crypto coins. Many players compete with each other in the mining process, but only one ultimately wins. This is one of the reasons why this process consumes so much electricity. In many places, this also comes from fossil sources, which explains the high CO2 emissions.
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