Experts Say Bitcoin Solves the Climate Problem. Here’s How
Jeffrey Gogo is a journalist with 20 years of experience in business, finance, cryptocurrency, and climate change news and analysis.
Elena is the Features Lead at Cryptonews.com. With a Master's degree in science journalism from City University, London, she is passionate about exploring complex topics in the world of technology.
Key takeaways:
Bitcoin (BTC) has often been criticized for its perceived high usage of power sources that fuel climate change, but emerging data suggests that the top cryptocurrency is a net negative emissions network.
It means that Bitcoin removes more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits, making it environmentally beneficial. Scientists blame greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane for causing climate change. Most of these gases come from human activities like burning fossil fuels.
According to Daniel Batten, a climate tech investor, Bitcoin “is now the world’s most sustainably powered industry,” with roughly 57% of the energy used to mine Bitcoin coming from renewables like solar and wind. That figure stood at 33% in 2020-2021.
“The primary source of power for Bitcoin [mining] is hydro,” Batten, who is also an environmentalist, told Cryptonews. He added:
“Bitcoin, like eVs [electric vehicles], is net emission reducing because it replaces more emission-intensive gold as a store of value and more emission-intensive banking services as a method of transaction.”
Batten said that using the Lightning Network, a layer built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain to allow for faster and cheaper transactions, “Bitcoin can scale further than Visa for a fraction of the carbon footprint.”
Bitcoin mining uses a lot of electricity—more than many countries. The process creates new coins by solving complex
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