Is Bitcoin Mining Killing the Planet?

Mining and environmentalism never really seemed to go hand-in-hand, really. The fact is that regular mining does have serious environmental impacts that have put people at risk of getting cancer, caused entire environments to be destroyed, and even sparked massive underground fires that can't be put out.

Many toxic zip codes exist because they ended up having mining rigs or refineries nearby. For example, the entire town of Picher, Oklahoma had to become a ghost town due to the sheer amount of lead and zinc stirred up by mining operations. Centralia, a ghost town in Pennsylvania known for being the inspiration for Silent Hill, became uninhabitable after an underground mine fire made the ground unstable.

Traditional mining is bad juju if you're an environmentalist. But, with Bitcoin mining, there's no drilling. In fact, at first glance, it seems like a really easy way to generate money without harming the environment.

People are even saying Bitcoin can end world poverty, and that Bitcoin wallets will become the way to carry money in the future. Bitcoin is great, right?

Well... kind of. You still have to mine Bitcoin, and that might have some bad consequences you don't really think about. Some people are wondering, "Is Bitcoin mining killing the planet?"

A quick glance says no.

If I were you, I wouldn't ask most people, "Is Bitcoin mining killing the planet?"

Why? Because most people will blink, look at you as if you're an idiot, and remind you that Bitcoin isn't a metal that you get out of the ground.

And they would be correct in doing so. Bitcoin mining isn't like traditional mining. You don't have people going into a giant hole in the ground to pick apart rocks for Bitcoin ore. That would be strange, but something we could totally see happening in Runescape.

However, there's more to Bitcoin mining than meets the eye—and the fact is that Bitcoin mining is a lot more environmentally damaging than we want to admit.

To first determine whether Bitcoin's bad for the environment, we need to understand the Bitcoin mining process.

Bitcoin mining is the act of approving blockchain transactions using your computer. When you approve a Bitcoin transaction, you end up getting paid in a slice of a Bitcoin. It's a mathematical kind of mining that doesn't involve picks, coal, or soot.

But there's an issue here.

You can't really mine Bitcoin without a proper Bitcoin mining setup. Moreover, Bitcoin, unlike other cryptocurrencies, has a mining process that tends to be very processor-intensive. So, you will need to get a lot of gear to keep it up.

The transaction process that allows you to mine for Bitcoin also has tweaks that exacerbate the issue.

Additionally, every transaction makes the blockchain slightly more difficult to work with. So the time, effort, and power it takes for a transaction to go through increases with every transaction.

This, in turn, makes Bitcoin bad for the environment.

Think about the following: it used to be very easy for people to get into Bitcoin mining using their regular computer CPU. Nowadays, most regular CPUs cannot handle it, and you will need a different CPU to handle it.

To make matters worse, profitability is also becoming an issue.

Bitcoin mining used to be way more profitable than it is is now. In order to actually make a living as a Bitcoin miner, you now have to do so in large-scale quantities. There are entire businesses based on mining Bitcoin in China, many of which involve regular upgrades to equipment.

Large-scale operations require a lot of electricity, and a lot of air conditioning, in order to work efficiently. These days, many casual miners are beginning to turn to other cryptocurrencies to mine because the price of the gear and upkeep keeps rising.

But the sheer amount of energy being spent mining Bitcoin means that, yes, Bitcoin mining is killing the planet.

Wait, how is Bitcoin mining killing the planet?

There are three major reasons why Bitcoin mining is so bad for the planet:

• First, the amount of equipment that's being bought solely for the process of mining Bitcoin is taking its toll on the environment.
• Second, the amount of power and air conditioning Bitcoin mining operations require is terrible, too.
• Third, when equipment is outdated, it's being thrown out—quite possibly in a toxic waste dump.

Let's break the facts down a bit more, shall we?

Why is the equipment made for Bitcoin mining killing the planet?

Making a computer—or computer processors—means that you will need a lot of natural resources.

While Bitcoin itself doesn't have to be mined from the earth, the materials you need to make a Bitcoin mining setup do. Metals, such as the ones used in computer chips, processors, wiring, and motherboards all have to be mined.

Additionally, most computers also have plastic in them. Plastic is a polymer that's made from oil. Guess what? Oil mining is a huge planet-killer.

But that alone isn't the only reason why Bitcoin's so bad for the environment. The fact is that all computers have this issue, right? Well, yes, but when it comes to Bitcoin, it's even worse because of the processor usage...

How is the energy put into Bitcoin mining killing the planet?

Processors take a lot of electricity to function, especially with highly taxing programs like Bitcoin mining. This means that most processors used in Bitcoin mining are energy drains. (Rising energy bills, by the way, is one reason why many casual miners dropped out.)

To make matters worse, a lot of computers will overheat if their processor is run too hard. This means that more electricity also to be allocated to air conditioning and cooling mechanisms.

The profitability issue also means that Bitcoin has to be mined on a large scale, so that means more electricity in larger quantities has to be expended to turn a profit. Some studies have suggested that the amount of electricity used in mining Bitcoin has gone up by as much as 30 percent in one month on a global scale.

Now, if we had free energy, this wouldn't be a problem. However, most electricity is produced by coal, oil, nuclear, and fracking-related procedures in power plants. This, in turn, causes more pollution—some types of which will not be able to be cleaned for thousands of years.

We don't really have renewable energy throughout the world, and that makes energy usage toxic. Bitcoin mining, especially via large-scale Bitcoin miners, is therefore toxic.

The EPA already issued out a warning against computer electricity waste. That alone should tell you volumes about how dire this can be.

Energy consumption aside, how is Bitcoin mining killing the planet?

Last but not least, all the gear that is used in Bitcoin mining will eventually fade out of usability. This means that gear will probably be useless, and it will get thrown out.

Guess what—garbage is pollution, too. In fact, e-waste, as it's known, is one of the most dangerous kinds of pollution out there. When computers are thrown out and recycled, many toxic compounds found in computers get released into the atmosphere.

Some of the bigger toxins involved in e-waste include:

• Lead
• Nickel
• Tin
• Fiberglass
• PCBs

Studies show that e-waste poses a serious risk to human health—as well as the environment. The fact that Bitcoin has such a rapid equipment turnaround doesn't bode well for the environment on this end, either.

How is Bitcoin mining killing the planet in other ways?

There are a number of other things I haven't covered in this article, including how CFCs from air conditioners tend to eat up the ozone layer, or similar issues dealing with the creation of computers on a whole.

However, the truth is that those are relatively minor compared to the points I mentioned above.

The conclusion is, yes, Bitcoin mining is inherently toxic to the environment.

Between the heavy metals used in making computers, the energy consumption needed to mine Bitcoin, and the fact that most of those processors will end up turning into cancer-causing compounds in drinking water, it's safe to say Bitcoin is not environmentally friendly.

So, the question isn't whether Bitcoin is bad for the environment. The question should be, "How quickly is Bitcoin killing the planet, and how can we make it stop?"