Bitcoin Mining: Generating Almost 272 Grams E-Waste with Every Transaction

Bitcoin is a digital currency with decentralization and anonymity features.

11:40 11 October 2021

Satoshi Nakamoto, an anonymous Japanese programmer, invented bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto invented bitcoin due to the challenges which the politically dependent finance system faces daily.

 

However, no one considered bitcoin as a robust payment method or electronic cash system. Most individuals use bitcoin for investment and trading purposes.

 

Bitcoin is one of the popular trading instruments amongst savvy investors and traders. If you also want to get profitable results in your bitcoin expedition, check british bitcoin profit app for more details. However, people are making money through bitcoin trading and investment and with bitcoin mining.

 

Mining is one of the essential aspects of the bitcoin network, but it correspondingly helps you earn a tremendous amount of money. Everyone is familiar with the fact that the bitcoin mining global chain consumes an exceeding extent of electricity.

 

However, it does not merely consume electricity but also produces a considerable amount of e-waste with every possible transaction. Below mentioned is everything you should know about the e-waste production of bitcoin mining. So without wasting any further ado, let's have a glance.

 

What is Bitcoin Mining?

 

Bitcoin mining is an exceedingly important aspect of the bitcoin complex. Bitcoin mining underlies the mechanism of proof of work. Bitcoin mining continues the bitcoin system; all the more, it is the mere method to add new bitcoin units to existence. Bitcoin mining refers to the action of getting a new BTC after verifying transactions.

 

To summarize, bitcoin miners have to verify many transactions, combine this transaction in one block, and broadcast that explicit block to the blockchain. Moreover, proof of work defines that bitcoin miners have to solve the complex math puzzle to verify these transactions.

 

After verifying the transactions and broadcasting these transactions to the blockchain, miners receive the block reward. Block reward of bitcoin mining contains 6.25 BTC with the transaction cost. A miner has a period of 10 minutes to mine a block, and the size of one block is 1 megabyte.

 

Undeniably bitcoin mining is the core of the bitcoin complex, but the electricity consumption of bitcoin mining is enormous. The prominent reason for this is extreme competition in the bitcoin mining industry and robust bitcoin mining specialized hardware.

 

Bitcoin mining electricity consumption

 

As mentioned ahead, bitcoin mining consumes an exceeding extent of electricity. The Bitcoin mining chain annually consumes electricity of 95.68 TW/h. If bitcoin mining continues similarly, the annual electricity consumption will reach 300 TW/h by the end of 2024.

 

E-Waste of Bitcoin mining

 

Bitcoin mining is not merely consuming a considerable amount of electricity, but it also has a huge environmental toll. Bitcoin mining plants can consume any possible energy source to perform bitcoin mining. However, electricity is the mere utmost accessible and convenient energy source.

 

Massive electricity consumption is burning an enormous amount of fossil fuel. The burning of fossil fuels is emitting a considerable amount of greenhouse gas. According to a recent study, the bitcoin mining global chain produces e-waste weighing 30.7 metric kilotons; yes, you read it right. As mentioned in the title, every bitcoin transaction generates e-waste weighing 272 grams, and there are ample transactions taking place in the bitcoin network daily.

 

You think what e-waste is. E-waste refers to increasing risks to our ecosystem and environment. The prominent aspects present in this e-waste are toxins, harmful gases, chemicals, and metals. According to some rich sources, bitcoin mining e-waste generation can reach the milestone of 70 metric kilo tons by the end of this year.

 

Did China's ban on bitcoin mining affect e-waste and electricity consumption?

 

China was the capital of bitcoin mining. The price of electricity in China is exceedingly low, so most of the mining pools in China utilize electricity. Several organizations and bitcoin mining forums were expecting a change in electricity consumption after the bitcoin mining ban in China.

 

However, there are barely a few changes in the electricity consumption of the global bitcoin mining chain. Therefore, the portion mentioned earlier is everything you should know about e-waste and the electricity consumption of the bitcoin mining process.