Three reasons why Bitcoin is greener than altcoins

We live in a post-truth era. Anyone can believe anything without having to back up their position.facts, data, or rational arguments.

Bitcoin deals a serious blow to financialindustry and made powerful enemies. Banks, Wall Street and even governments are losing revenue due to the migration of capital to blockchain. They can't just let it go, so they've teamed up with the media industry to launch a campaign to smear this new asset class.

The latest allegation against Bitcoin is related tocarbon emissions. According to Elon Musk and other authorities, the first cryptocurrency consumes too much electricity and is bad for the environment. But, of course, sending rockets to Mars and charging electric vehicles is also not complete without energy.

Electricity is used by everyone and everything:air conditioners, electric vehicles, heating systems, tweeting about how Bitcoin is consuming too much electricity, etc. It would be more fair to compare the electricity consumed by mining BTC with other alternatives and see which is more efficient.

Bitcoin has been accused of being minedpredominantly in China (which is almost true, but is changing rapidly) and at the same time banned in China (which is mostly untrue). But both are impossible at the same time. This is how the principle of "fear, uncertainty and doubt" works, otherwise FUD: they throw out superficial arguments in the hope that some of them will take root.

Here are some reasons why Bitcoin is actually good for the environment.

1. Greener than alternatives

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It can be argued that Bitcoin is very efficienttechnology to save value in comparison to, for example, gold. Obviously, mining, smelting, transporting and storing the yellow metal is much more harmful to the environment than a few computers performing calculations.

Likewise, the cryptoindustry seeks to squeezebanks, Wall Street and fiat money. The entire financial industry has 10 times the carbon footprint of Bitcoin. Crypto doesn't need buildings, transportation, huge director salaries, traveling to Hong Kong for unnecessary meetings, advertising, printing trillions of dollars and wars to protect the dollar's status as a reserve currency.

When Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies take over the world, the planetwill become much cleaner. This is so obvious that it does not require any arguments. Just like e-books are greener than paper books, Bitcoin is greener than building and maintaining all the conglomerates that support the financial system.

Anything that can go online should do it, as it will save a huge amount of energy. Bitcoin, like the Internet, is greener than alternatives.

2. Bitcoin as an accumulator

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About 15% of the electricity generated bypower plants is wasted by load fluctuations. Thermal (coal, gas and oil) and nuclear power plants lack flexibility, that is, their capacity cannot be simply reduced. As a consequence, excess energy is generated during off-peak periods and is lost in the grid.

For this reason, electricity is cheaper at night. Energy companies are trying to stimulate demand by lowering prices. Batteries are too expensive, so this energy is given out almost free of charge.

Bitcoin is the perfect solution to this problem.Miners buy all excess energy at a low cost and convert it into monetary energy. This situation is beneficial for all parties. Energy is not wasted and there are no additional carbon emissions. The perfect combination.

3. Green energy

source: Unsplash

Solar power is the cheapest formelectricity, whose price continues to fall due to the scaling effect. The latest solar kilowatt-hour price is less than 2 cents, compared to 17 cents for gas and 5.5 for nuclear.

Bitcoin needs cheap electricity. Miners move to places where energy is inexpensive in order to have a competitive advantage.

What if miners promote renewable energy production in order to have cheap electricity?

This is exactly what they do.

74% of mining is done with renewable energy.

Yes, coal is still heavily used in China(although not necessary for Bitcoin) and most of the mining takes place there, but things are changing rapidly. Norway, Iceland and Colorado join mining pools with their renewable resources. Plus, China is spearheading the solar revolution, so mining is getting cleaner every year.

Mining moves around the world to where it isavailable energy sources, which usually means solar, water or wind energy. At the same time, a favorable cycle is created when more and more green energy is generated and, thanks to the scaling effect, it becomes increasingly cheaper.

Solar energy is practically free today, thanks to Bitcoin. Bitcoin will soon be carbon negative.

In conclusion

The world is constantly consuming energy.Everything you do, from driving to cooking and shopping online, has a carbon footprint. Instead of going back to the Middle Ages to cut emissions, we need to promote the use of clean energy to keep our environmental impact to a minimum.

You can turn off the Internet, prohibit dieselcars and stop using central heating, but this will have a huge impact on our comfort level. Such drastic action is unnecessary. The sun gives us millions of kilowatt-hours every day, and if we manage to convert at least 1% of this into electricity, then we will get enough for our needs.

Do not point your finger at certain examples.energy expenditure. Who should decide what is the best use of energy? Perhaps you like to travel, while someone else likes to play computer games. We shouldn't turn into energy police and tell people what they can or cannot do.

The key is to produce clean energy andthen let people decide how to use it. Nobody criticizes Twitter or Facebook for using too much energy. I haven't seen any articles condemning the banking industry for its carbon footprint. But for some reason everyone blames Bitcoin. Not diesel cars, not gas stoves and not giant cruise ships. It seems as if Bitcoin has become a scapegoat.

Just like the Internet is generally favorableimpact on carbon emissions, Bitcoin will soon have a negative carbon footprint. Any online activity is better than its offline counterpart. Let's save the planet with Bitcoin and make the world a better and cleaner place.

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