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Understanding Bitcoin (BTC) mining and its sustainability is not an easy thing to do. We have read in the past different reports talking about Bitcoin’s energy consumption and how harmful it is for the environment. Nevertheless, this might not be accurate at all.
Honefoss is a small town close to Oslo where Norway’s largest Bitcoin mining operation runs on a daily basis. The warehouse is currently pumping hot air into tubes that help wet wood to warm up and get dry after being covered by snow.
This is possible thanks to all the hardware miners that are currently running in order to secure the Bitcoin’s network. Right now, this company accounts for just 1% of the total computing power of the global Bitcoin network. But how could this be sustainable?
Understanding Bitcoin’s Sustainability
We know that heat is being wasted. Moreover, energy consumption is massive and the noise bothers neighbouring regions. Due to these reasons, some countries have already banned or could ban, in the future, Bitcoin mining operations.
However, there are some things that should be taken into consideration. Kryptovalut is currently using only renewable energy to conduct its operations. That means that the company is not creating additional waste related to its crypto mining operations. They do not increase the demand for contaminating energy sources.
Kjetil Hove Pettersen, Kryptovalut’s chief executive, said that it is currently time to push back the negative narrative about mining. On the matter, he :
“If you look at the total energy cost, globally, for any given thing, it’s always going to be huge – I think we can always compare to that of a small European country. That includes also traditional gold mining, which takes more than four times the amount of energy as Bitcoin mining.”
Bitcoin (BTC) lets users send and receive money across borders for almost no fees and without intermediaries. At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin has a price of $42,750 and it has a market valuation of $810 billion. This makes it the largest cryptocurrency in the world.
As Pettersen explains, mining is not polluting in itself. However, he says that it is always important to check which types of energy sources are used in order to protect Bitcoin’s network. In Norway, there is currently an energy surplus that is being used to mine Bitcoin. Other countries such as El Salvador are also using energy that would otherwise be wasted to mine Bitcoin.
