If Bitcoin Bulls Are Right, The Environmental Damage Would Be Disastrous: Report

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If the Bitcoin bulls (CRYPTO: BTC) are right and the coin’s price hits $ 500,000, it could have dire consequences for the environment.

What Happened: According to a Tuesday Fortune report, Bitcoin’s “notorious carbon footprint” could inexorably increase if its price increases as many supporters expect. Bitcoin miners would now create as much CO2 as “the Greek nation will spit out several times more, matching the emissions of much larger industrial nations.”

Granted, there are plenty of efforts to make Bitcoin greener, no doubt spurred by Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) dropping support for the coin due to environmental impact concerns.

Yet, according to the report, “Unless Bitcoin goes green in the greatest possible way, its integrated economy ensures that as its price skyrockets, the tonnage of carbon dioxide it releases will also skyrocket. “.

If the price of Bitcoin were to reach $ 100,000 by Christmas 2024, the year that Bitcoin production will be halved to reduce inflation, the size of the mining industry would increase by around 8% and generate around 8% more CO2 than today.

If it were to reach $ 500,000 by 2024, or even a few years later, the industry would grow from $ 16 billion today to $ 86 billion.

Read also: Elon Musk sets record when Tesla accepts Bitcoin again

Such growth would force miners to spend a total of $ 52 billion on electricity over three years or more, with an estimated average cost of $ 40 per megawatt hour.

Therefore, the Bitcoin mining industry would pump 1.3 billion MW of electricity per year and the grid is currently estimated at 475 grams of CO2 for every megawatt of power deployed.

If this were to be true, Bitcoin at $ 500,000 would emit 617 million tonnes of carbon per year.

Such a carbon footprint would be more than enormous. It would exceed that of Australia by 56%, that of Brazil by 40%, that of South Africa by 40% and that of Mexico by 33%.

The story continues

The Bitcoin network would emit 70% more carbon than the UK and approach Germany’s emissions of 696 million tonnes.

Finally, Bitcoin would produce an astonishing 12% of the CO2 produced by the United States.

Read more: What is Bitcoin mining?

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