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SCIENCEWednesday 3 January 2018
Q&A: How is the growth of bitcoin affecting the environment?
By PATRICK WHITTLE In this Dec. 21, 2017 file photo, a woman walks past the Bitcoin ATM in Hong Kong. amount of electricity they
Associated Press Associated Press could possibly be using is
The growth of bitcoin is 13 terawatt hours, de Vries
fueling speculation and in late December, com- coin goes up, the puzzles of a Sierra Club chapter in said in an interview. That’s
debate about the envi- pared with about $1,000 become increasingly more Maine, said in an interview about as much as the en-
ronmental impact of the in March. The price is also difficult, and it requires that the growth of virtual tire country of Slovenia. De
collective energy needed volatile, though, and tailed more computer power to currencies such as bitcoin Vries said less conservative
to power the virtual cur- off somewhat after coming solve them. “threatens progress we are estimates make it entirely
rency in the era of climate close to $20,000 earlier in Some estimates say more making toward moving possible that bitcoin is using
change. Some questions December. A bitcoin itself than 60 percent of the pro- toward a low energy, low as much energy as Ireland,
and answers about the is- is essentially a line of com- cessing power used to mine carbon economy.” which consumes about
sue: puter code. It’s signed digi- bitcoin is in China, where it HOW MUCH DOES BITCOIN twice as much as Slove-
WHAT IS BITCOIN? tally when it goes from one relies heavily on the burn- REALLY AFFECT ENERGY nia, or about 0.7 percent of
Bitcoin is the most popu- owner to another. ing of coal. Coal and other CONSUMPTION? the U.S. total. The problem
lar virtual currency in the WHY ARE CRITICS CON- fossil fuels are also the larg- Estimates vary, and a true is getting worse, said de
world, and it has grown in CERNED ABOUT BITCOIN est generator of electric- figure could be impossible Vries, who estimated the
value this year. It was creat- ENERGY USE? ity for the rest of the world, to come by because of the annual amount of energy
ed in 2009 as a new way of Bitcoin can’t exist without and coal is a significant intentionally anonymous consumed by bitcoin rose
paying for things that would computers, which can’t ex- contributor to manmade nature of bitcoin use. But by a fifth in the final weeks
not be subject to central ist without a source of elec- climate change. Burning it Dutch bitcoin analyst Alex of 2017.
banks that are capable tricity. And the number of produces carbon dioxide, de Vries, who operates a WHO IS RIGHT IN THE BIT-
of devaluing currency. computers and the energy a gas that is a primary con- Bitcoin Energy Consump- COIN DEBATE?
The sustainability concerns needed to power them is tributor to global warming. tion Index on the website The extent of bitcoin’s im-
about bitcoin, voiced by rising. The growing value of This reliance on fossil fuels Digiconomist, has pro- pact on the environment,
economists and environ- bitcoin is directly tied to the has given rise to specula- duced estimates he be- and how much that should
mentalists, stem from the amount of energy it uses. tion that bitcoin’s energy lieves are alarming. matter to people who use
process of “mining” that is The miners unlock bitcoins consumption will continue If bitcoin miners are us- it, is a source of debate.
central to its existence. by solving complex, unique to rise as it grows in popu- ing the most efficient ma- While de Vries says bitcoin
The “miners” use computers puzzles. As the value of bit- larity. Glen Brand, director chines possible, the lowest is consuming an “insane
to make complex calcula- amount of energy,” both
tions that verify transactions on its own and relative to
in bitcoins. This uses a tre- older payment systems
mendous amount of ener- such as credit cards, others
gy via computers and serv- think the situation is now so
er farms all over the world, dire.
which has given rise to con- Bitcoin investor Marc Bev-
cerns about the amount and, of St. Louis, has written
of fossil fuel-dependent that bitcoin likely uses close
electricity used to power to four or five terawatt
the computers. Some esti- hours, less than the annual
mates say bitcoin’s energy electricity consumption for
impact is more than that of Christmas lights in the U.S.
a small country. He said that he believes
WHY IS BITCOIN ATTRAC- bitcoin’s benefits, such as
TIVE? making payments more ef-
Bitcoin is a kind of digital ficient and helping people
money that isn’t tied to escape inflation, outweigh
a bank or a government, the environmental toll.
and its value has risen However, he added: “We
swiftly in the second half don’t have exact data to
of 2017. The value of one say how much we are ben-
bitcoin was about $16,500, efiting from bitcoin.”q
U.S. appeals court: Feds erred in
Hawaii fishery expansion
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLE- peals ruled this week that volves hundreds of baited In this Oct. 1, 2000 file photo, researchers move one of three
HER and CALEB JONES the National Marine Fisher- hooks on miles of line. 250-pound loggerhead sea turtles to a boat that will release
Associated Press ies Service failed to con- The practice can ensnare them into the Pacific Ocean off San Diego.
HONOLULU (AP) — Fed- sider scientific data that birds, turtles and other ma-
eral agencies were wrong showed the loggerhead rine life. Associated Press
to allow Hawaii’s longline turtle population would sig- Both agencies are sup-
swordfish industry to ex- nificantly decline when it posed to be protecting
pand fishing efforts while set limits for the industry. wildlife but have “instead
allowing the hooking or The judges also said the U.S. been illegally helping the
entangling of more endan- Fish and Wildlife Service ille- longliners push them to
gered sea turtles, a U.S. ap- gally allowed the industry the brink of extinction,”
peals court ruled. to kill protected migratory Earthjustice attorney Paul
The panel of judges on the birds. Achitoff said in a statement
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap- Swordfish longline fishing in- Thursday. q
