Is BTC a climate killer?

The number 1 cryptocurrency, BTC, is a climate killer – huge amounts of electricity consumption, which at least does not only come from renewable energy sources, mining farms whose equipment consists of harmful ingredients.

BTC as a climate killer

At least that is what is repeatedly claimed, since the original blockchain uses the source code to access the digital mining mechanism in order to generate new blocks. However, it is this underlying mechanism of the BTC network, at least that is what fans of the cryptocurrency say, that makes BTC so secure – and therefore important (and correct) for the entire crypto space.

If you want to ban certain technologies by law, you have to prove that the social costs of this technology justify a ban. Otherwise one cannot speak of proportionality in a liberal democracy.

The ban faction around the SPD, Left and Greens in the ECON committee justified their Proof-of-Work ban primarily with the “considerable ecological footprint” (Green financial politician Sabine Grützmacher) that BTC and Co. allegedly cause.

But how significant is it anyway? In fact, BTC is responsible for consuming 89 TWh of electricity annually. As things stand, this corresponds to 0.05 percent of global electricity consumption. One comes to this conclusion Study from Coinshares.

Since electricity can come from different sources, the carbon footprint says more. But even that is no more than a drop in the ocean. The BTC network emits a total of 49 megatons (Mt) of CO₂ annually. This corresponds to around 0.08 percent of the world’s CO₂ emissions. Anyone who is still considering that BTC is even promoting the expansion of renewable energies must realize that the narrative of the “environmental sow BTC” is nothing more than a charged political slogan.