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In a recent revelation, financial economist Alex de Vries has shed light on a critical environmental concern associated with cryptocurrency mining, particularly Bitcoin. The alarming issue revolves around the extensive water consumption attributed to the mining process, posing a significant threat to the already strained global water supply, especially in water-scarce regions.
- Bitcoin’s Water Consumption Unveiled
- Environmental Toll and Regional Implications
- Water, Bitcoin, and the Future
- Cryptocurrency Mining: A Drain on Essential Resources
- Collaboration with Environmental Organizations
De Vries, a PhD student at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, brings attention to the burgeoning water footprint of Bitcoin. This issue goes beyond the commonly discussed electricity consumption associated with cryptocurrency mining. The competitive process of solving mathematical equations to mine Bitcoins results in an astronomical number of useless computations, contributing to the depletion of valuable water resources.
Within the Bitcoin network, miners collectively generate an astonishing 350 quintillion guesses every second. This massive computational process requires an immense amount of computing power, leading to substantial water usage in the cooling systems of large data centers. Drawing on research data, De Vries estimates that Bitcoin mining in the U.S. alone consumes 8.6 to 35.1 gigaliters (GL) of water annually.
Moreover, power plants supplying electricity to these data centers, whether fueled by coal, gas, or hydropower, further contribute to Bitcoin’s water footprint. The cumulative impact, as estimated by De Vries, reached over 1,600 gigaliters (GL) of water globally in 2021. Astonishingly, each transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain consumes 16,000 liters of water, equivalent to filling a backyard swimming pool.
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