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> It’s pretty clear by now that, looking just at costs (without getting into the detail of the actual type of pollution), mining gold is ~50 times more expensiv
by brutuscat 6y ago
> It’s pretty clear by now that, looking just at costs (without getting into the detail of the actual type of pollution), mining gold is ~50 times more expensive than mining bitcoins AND running the bitcoin network. Bitcoin pollutes far, far less than gold.
> mining gold is ~50 times more expensive than mining bitcoins
> It’s even harder to compare the type of pollution created by mining gold versus mining bitcoin. What’s easy to do is to simply state that mining gold is MUCH WORSE than mining bitcoins. Mining gold is an environmental disaster. Poisoned waters, solid waste, endangered communities, and so on. Producing gold for one wedding ring alone generates 20 tons of waste.
https://simon.medium.com/bitcoin-and-pollution-the-definitive-answer-a010b0826f2a#8925 https://simon.medium.com/bitcoin-and-pollution-the-definitiv...
- cool_dude85 6y agoThis is taking the Bitcoin "mining" metaphor too far. The correct comparison for Bitcoin energy usage or environmental impact is obviously other software, not real-world mining. I mean, Bitcoin also produces less GHG than making concrete, but, so what?
- jpambrun 6y agoIt could be that mining gold solely to hold value and Bitcoin are both wasteful and of dubious moral quality.