China’s central bank told a top-level government internet finance group that the monetary authority can tell local governments to regulate the power usage of bitcoin miners to gradually reduce the scale of their production.

@CFreak: So far, "proof of stake" is only a hypothetical replacement for "proof of work" in crypto-currencies. I for one do not think that people will trust foreign anonymous entities to be in control of a block chain, just because those entities have amassed a large share of that currency.

To me, a better alternative to "proof of (useless hashing) work" would be some "proof of useful work" concept, where the right to add a block to the blockchain is gained by proving to have produced some real-world product or service.

"The website Digiconomist estimates that the entire bitcoin network currently consumes just over 46 terawatt hours of energy every year," he wrote in an op-ed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a major German newspaper, on February 4.

"This is almost as much as the annual energy consumption of Portugal, with its population of roughly 10 million. Simply settling a transaction in the bitcoin network consumes around 427 kilowatt hours. This amount of energy is enough to supply an average German four-person household with electricity for more than a month. By way of comparison, just settling a standard SEPAtransfer (without the payer initiating the transfer or checking their account balance on a PC or smartphone) takes less than one watt-hour. On the whole, the Bundesbank estimates that settling a bitcoin transaction uses roughly 460,000 times as much electricity as a normal transfer."

Bitcoin has a carbon footprint comparable to that of New Zealand, producing 36.95 megatons of CO2 annually, according to Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, an online tool created by data scientist Alex de Vries. It consumes as much power as Chile — around 77.78 TWh — according to Digonomist’s estimates.

The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, a separate tool from researchers at Cambridge University, shows a much larger figure of 110.53 TWh — more than the entire annual energy consumption of the Netherlands.

This must be stopped and I prefer more violent way.

In 2019, Christian Stoll and his team conducted a study and calculated the annual range of carbon emissions from Bitcoin's mining capacity. They got values ​​from 22.0 to 22.9 million tons of CO2 - the equivalent of carbon dioxide emitted by a US city like Kansas City. In the November 2018 carbon emissions ranking, Bitcoin ranked between Jordan and Sri Lanka (82nd and 83rd in terms of emissions). Since then, Bitcoin's carbon footprint has only increased.

Currently (March 2021), the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin network is already estimated at 37.82 million tons of CO2. Which is comparable to the carbon dioxide emissions of a country like Slovakia.

A study on the impact of cryptocurrency mining on carbon emissions was conducted by scientists from Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. After modeling and mathematical analysis of the situation with Bitcoin mining in China, it was found that in 2024 296.59 TWh of electricity will be spent on mining. To generate such a volume of electricity, it will be necessary to burn such an amount of fossil fuels that will emit 130.5 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. This is comparable to emissions from the Czech Republic and Qatar combined.

According to the researchers, a carbon tax alone is not enough in this case. Miners won't stop using electricity. In this case, the requirement to restructure electricity consumption with the transfer of cryptocurrency mining to a share or completely to "green" energy can help in this case. Only the central authorities can solve this problem.

Chinese elites are rotten now as they allow total scam to thrive.

People I talked with (inside China) tell that crypto scam is loved by local clerks and some business as it allows them to channel their illegal income outside country.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/theguardian/2011/jan/26/genghis-khan-eco-warrior

"Genghis Khan, in fact, may have been not just the greatest warrior but the greatest eco-warrior of all time."

The show must go on... I might be on the wrong thread... It's just crazy and crazy upon crazy

In a city in Sarawak, Malaysia, authorities got rid of 1,069 rigs at once by crushing them with a steamroller. The PCs were confiscated over six raids conducted between February and April this year. Sarawak Energy Berhad, the electric utility company of the Malaysian province, is accusing the mining operators of stealing electricity for their activities. The operators allegedly stole RM8.4 million worth of energy, or around US$2 million, from the company.

Usual capitalists idiocy. Always prefer to destroy things.

According to researchers, in 2020, about 67 TWh of energy were spent on mining and conducting transactions in bitcoins around the world. This figure has already been exceeded this year. It is assumed that by the end of 2021, the energy consumption of the Bitcoin network will be 91 TWh, which roughly corresponds to the energy consumption of the entire Pakistan.

Economists at the Central Bank of the Netherlands, together with engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have calculated that every bitcoin transaction generates the same amount of e-waste as recycling two iPhones.

“The lifespan of Bitcoin mining devices is still only 1.29 years. As a result, they estimated that the entire Bitcoin network currently generates 30.7 kilotons of e-waste annually. This value is comparable to the amount of electronic waste of small information and telecommunications equipment in a country like the Netherlands, ”says the researchers' report.

Economists estimate that 112.5 million transactions were processed on the bitcoin network in 2020. Based on this, they were able to establish that each individual transaction using the most popular cryptocurrency generated at least 272 grams of electronic waste, which is comparable to the weight of a pair of Apple smartphones.