Bitcoin mining not a waste of energy

Mining cryptocurrencies and especially bitcoin is not a waste of energy resources. It’s resources and money invested in the most secure financial network on earth. Bitcoin professor Andreas Antonopoulos tackled this subject in recent Q&A on his Youtube channel. Even though Bitcoin is much smaller than the banking business, it’s probably also more efficient.

Antonopoulos sees mining as the effect of market conditions. It’s a profitable business and therefore there are developments in the optimization of the mining process. However, the biggest costs in mining comes from electricity. That’s why mining farms often choose natural resources for electricity over the traditional electricity net. Think about hydro generators in Russia and China, wind energy and solar energy in for example the United States.

“It is not a waste of money. It is money that has been well spend and invested by miners in order to buy us all the most robust system of immutability, security and protection against double spending that has ever been invented.”

Andreas Antonopoulos — Bitcoin Q&A: Proof-of-Work, attacks and ASICs (Youtube Jan 10th)

Over the course of 2019 there were multiple reports accusing the Bitcoin network of being a waste of energy resources and harmful to the environment. However, over the past few years there’s been…