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Until the fallout between Tesla and Bitcoin most people probably didn't know how much impact mining had on the environment. Thanks to Elon Musk and his push for his favorite coin lately even though this doesn't sit well with many, Elon seems to care less. Until last week did most people discover that Bitcoin produces 36-95 megatons or carbon dioxide annually and in a couple of years may increase the global temperature by 2 degrees Celsius. Environmentalist have also joined the show by showing red flags due to the potential harm bitcoin mining will have on the environment pretty soon. 

While some might not agree and think it is business strategy, is it really? All cryptocurrencies have damaging effect in the environment but on different levels( i.e rate of mining and transactions). Cryptocurrency transactions are recorded by a distributed miner network, incentivized by block rewards. These  are specialized computers  which have to record new blocks which can only be created by solving cryptographic puzzles. In the case of bitcoin, the higher the price and transactions, the higher the mining and so the impact on the environment. This is mainly due to the fact that majority of bitcoin is mined in China, and they account for 75% of bitcoin blockchain operation around the globe. China makes use of cheap electricity, coal and there in lies Elon's problem. 

By dropping bitcoin from it's payment options, bitcoins rate dropped as low as 17% wiping over 365 billion dollars in market value, this also affected Ethereum which has continuously dropped over time. It is worthy to note that if Bitcoin was a country it would be on the list of the top energy consumers of the world annually at 120 terawatts-hours. Producing more carbon emissions than even the largest airline in the world "American Airlines". Placing it at the top of the list of the most energy consuming coin, followed by Ethereum at 17 Terawatts-hours. It is only a matter of time before other altcoins start causing just as much carbon emissions due to the large number of people migrating to the crypto space. 

For now the least damaging coin is XRP at 0.007 kilowatt-hour, other coins like Litecoin is currently at 19 kilowatt-hour and Dogecoin, Elon's favorite is at 0.12kwh. While the environment may suffer, the way most  cryptonians make  profit is by the coin value rising but that means more energy consumption  and an increase in global warming by a couple more degrees in years to come. A loss-win situation for the world, perhaps shifting to more renewable source of energy would take this burden off our chest for example solar energy or wind. While many may find it difficult to believe , the figures are real and it's time we moved to alternative sources of energy. 


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