Highlighting this, the Messari founder quoted research from Lyn Alden: Selkis says that Bitcoin miners are often attracted to stranded energy sources that otherwise go unused. While this might seem diabolical, the opportunity is for crypto to automate the global financial services industry - which by Selkis’ figures amounts to 3% of global emissions.Īnother way it could be considered a positive for the environment is the incentive structure for cheap (often wasted) energy. The cryptocurrency’s Proof of Work (PoW) consensus model requires energy to be expended during the consensus process.Īs Selkis points out, the Bitcoin network could consume up to 1% of the world’s energy if it were to grow to a $20 trillion asset. The first touches on the elephant in the room, which is how much energy Bitcoin might consume as it scales. These include:īitcoin’s environmental impact should scale sub-linearly to its economic impactBitcoin recycles energyGreen energy stimulus In contrast, the long-time crypto investor produced several reasons why Bitcoin has an important role to play in our clean energy future.
The level of negative sentiment driven towards the cryptocurrency based on its perceived environmental costs was “as if Bitcoin were a bona fide toxin”, as Selkis described. In his annual Crypto Theses for 2022 report, Selkis discusses how Bitcoin has become the centre of political and climate debate. However, crypto veteran Ryan Selkis who is the founder of crypto research firm Messari, takes a polar opposite perspective. The bleak comparisons have enraged many climate activists at a time when emission reductions are paramount. Most of us have seen the headlines comparing the cryptocurrency’s network energy usage to entire countries. At least, that is the case being made by a veteran of the industry.īitcoin has received a bad reputation for its high energy usage in recent years. The world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), might actually be a force for good in solving climate change.