Ivan Zhigalov
Scientists for the University of Munich urge the regulators to go beyond the BTC scope when it comes to crypto mining affecting the environment. They say that Bitcoin accounts for over 66% of the entire energy consumed by crypto mining, based on the basic algorithms, the current hashing speed, and the mining equipment used, while altcoins account for the rest of it. Consequently, altcoins add almost 50% on top of Bitcoin's energy demand, which in itself may result in considerable damage to the environment.
The blockchain included: Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Zcash (ZEC), DogeCoin (DOGE), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Decred (DCR), RavenCoin (RVN), MonaCoin (MONA), Bytom (BTM), SiaCoin (SC), DigiByte (DGB), Horizen (ZEN), Komodo (KMD), and Bytecoin (BCN).
Is Crypto Mining Harmful to The Environment?
The researchers underline that the mining industry's energy demand raises concerns among the environmental expert community, most research is focused on Bitcoin, instead of embracing the entire mining industry.
They say that energy consumption is not a problem in itself when it comes to the global climate change. A higher amount of hours of working to the full capacity is capable of resulting in an increased intensity of harmful emissions affecting the environment.
Ivan Zhigalov
