HE bitcoin It is a virtual currency, but its environmental effects affect the tangible world. This not only represents a strong greenhouse gas emission, but also a high one. Water ConsumptionAs a scientific study just revealed.
According to the report prepared by financial economist Alex de Vries and published in the magazine, cryptocurrency mining uses a significant amount of water and this will increase further as the demand for this type of currency is expected to increase. Sustainability of Cell ReportsHere he presents the first comprehensive estimate of Bitcoin’s water consumption.
The study warns that if the use of cryptocurrencies continues to scale up and restrictions are not implemented, this could lead to water problems, especially in countries already struggling with water scarcity, including the United States.
“There is drought in many parts of the world and HE fresh water It is an increasingly scarce resource. “If we continue to use this valuable resource to perform useless calculations, reality will be truly painful,” says de Vries, a PhD student at the Free University of Amsterdam (Netherlands).
Previous research on the resource use of cryptocurrencies has focused primarily on electricity consumption. While mining Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, ‘miners’ from around the world compete to solve mathematical equations on the internet, and in the process, the winners get a share of Bitcoin’s value. On the Bitcoin network, miners process approximately 350 quintillion (350 followed by 18 zeros) transactions every secondan activity that consumes enormous amounts of computing power.
“The correct answer comes out every 10 minutes, and the rest of the data, quintillions of them, are useless calculations and are therefore immediately thrown away,” says De Vries.
Plenty of water to cool computers
During the same process, large amounts of water are also used to cool computers in large data centers. Based on data from previous studies, de Vries calculates: Bitcoin mining consumes between 8.6 and 35.1 gigalitres (GL) of water per year in the United States alone.
In addition to cooling computers, coal and gas power plants that provide electricity to run such equipment also use water to reduce temperatures. This coolant evaporates and cannot be reused.. Therefore, water evaporating from hydroelectric power plants also increases the water footprint of Bitcoin’s energy demand.
In total, de Vries estimates: Bitcoin mining consumed more than 1,600 GL of water worldwide in 2021. Each transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain uses an average of 16,000 liters of water, enough to fill a traditional swimming pool. But the predictions are even more worrying because De Vries claims that Bitcoin water consumption is expected to increase to 2,300 GL in 2023.
In the United States alone, Bitcoin mining consumes between 93 and 120 GL of water per year; This is equivalent to the average water consumption of 300,000 American homes or a city like Washington DC.
A growing problem
“Bitcoin price has recently increased and reached the highest point of the year despite the recent crash of several cryptocurrency platforms. This will have serious consequences, because the higher the price, the greater the environmental impact –underlined–. The most painful thing about cryptocurrency mining is that it uses a lot of computing power and a lot of resources, but these resources are not used to create some kind of model like artificial intelligence that can then be used for something else. “Only useless calculations are being made,” he condemned.
worth more than $37,000 per coin Bitcoin continues to expand worldwide. Increasing Bitcoin mining activities in Central Asian countries, where dry weather puts pressure on freshwater resources, will worsen the problem. In Kazakhstan, a global cryptocurrency mining hub, Bitcoin transactions consumed 997.9 GL of water in 2021. This Central Asian country is already facing a water crisis, and the increasing water footprint of Bitcoin mining could worsen this shortage.
De Vries suggests: Strategies like changing Bitcoin mining software could reduce energy and water needed for this process. Using renewable energy sources that do not require water, such as wind and solar, can also reduce water consumption.
“But do you really want to waste wind and solar energy on crypto? The amount of renewable energy is limited in many countries, including the United States. Of course, you can move some of those renewable energy sources to crypto, but that means something else. Its energy will come from fossil fuels. Whether there’s a gain or not.” “I’m not sure it won’t,” he concludes.
Reference work: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-sustainability/fulltext/S2949-7906(23)00004-6
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