Can Bitcoin clean up toxic waste?

Some new players in the crypto space are using bitcoin mining to clean up toxic waste. So is it possible to “green up” bitcoin’s dirty track record? Can mining digital currency ever actually be good for the environment?

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

#PlanetA #GreenCrypto #BitcoinMining

Reporter: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill
Video Editor: Nils Reinecke
Supervising Editor: Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann

Read More:

0:00 Intro – What's up with bitcoin's dirty track record?
0:58 How do you "mine" bitcoin?
1:48 Crypto's environmental impact & energy consumption
3:11 Generating bitcoin from toxic waste
4:27 How to clean up Pennsylvania's GOB piles
5:51 Mining Bitcoin with green energy
6:08 HODL Ranch wants to help balance Texas power grid
7:20 "Proof of work" vs "proof of stake" cryptocurrencies
8:02 Blockchain technology to offset your carbon footprint
9:59 Conclusion

[DWPlanetA]

How do you make sure to invest your money climate-friendly?

[SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

Ok so these are some really cool ways to mine Bitcoin in a more responsible manner, but I feel like my core issues with Bitcoin are still left unaddressed.

1) the block chain is an insanely powerful tool, but it seems like such a waste to use this on simply purchasing a pack of soda or speculating on an investment….I’d love to see the block chain used instead on things where we NEED to prove ownership. Think everything which currently requires a Notarized signature. I think the block chain could help us move a lot of stuff away from hard paper based systems into much less wasteful digital formats.

2) no matter where you get the energy for mining from that is still a lot of energy which could have been used for normal stuff. When companies are specifically only using EXCESS energy to mine crypto then I’m happy. But I worry that they actually end up deciding to produce more energy just so they can support crypto mining!

[freeman]

Finally, a video that shows a balanced perspective on the energy use in Crypto. Most videos are either crypto bros talking their head's off about how it's not actually _that_ bad for the environment or environmental activists that don't anything about how cryptocurrency works. Well done as always DW

[miketrinkler]

While I admire that some cryptominers are turning to renewable energy to power their mining processes, it STILL DOES NOT resolve the problem regarding the wear and tear of the hardware that is used

So to me this seems more like a drop in the bucket if anything

[filippolicari]

Thanks for this video! In my opinion, what we need, as humans, is semplifing things... It seems to me that a new form of money, like crypto, is going to make things more complicated so far... and there is no REAL need of this... Excuses are going to be bigger and bigger but what do we need cripto for? polluding less IS still polluding, right?

[iMitsubishiZA]

How do we know that the green funds are are actually being used to save trees. Is there a certification and auditing process to confirm???

[rajendratayya]

Sounds like more headache. It is all really addiction with technology.

[tandtadwe]

As a recent Chainanalysis explains this problem: Bitcoin will use 100% renewable energy when the world energy consumption will come from 100% renewable consumption

The fact is that the whole Bitcoin mining takes up 0.08% of energy consumption - which can be a rounding error

While I can’t deny that crypto used a lot of cheap coal to mine, this is not a problem that can’t be solved. Also the waste from mining rigs is not that high, there are the S9 Antminers in use which are around from 2016, so more than 12-18 months.

Here are some facts,

- a swipe of card is not all there is in monetart transaction, check how much visa, mastercard and other monetary branches consume
- the coal electricity can be solved by policies from the government, making it more costly instead of cheaper

Bitcoin miners are profit focused - so they will go anywhere there is cheap energy ( usually renewable )

We should take a look at all the other industries which consume energy as bitcoin consumes only 4x the energy required to print the money, think about all the steps that consume energy- visa transfer consumption per total is around 740 Gigajoules alone

[seriousbees]

Answer: no. There are other things you could have done with that GOB pile power. This is a bandaid solution for an amputated limb

[tomo]

And how is this green? They're releasing CO2 in the process. They could clean up the toxic waste without burning it as usually and the financing shoul'd come from the goverment if the toxic threat is real.

[lucasf]

Ive spend the whole day reading about moss and now it here! Go BR Startups!

[apravko]

IOTA is probably the most sustainable crypto project

[charliejose]

Bitcoin Mining versus actual Gold Mining... hands down... I go for BTC Mining.

[ryanmckenna]

wasting energy on finance is always going to be a loss even if it uses clean energy. The same clean energy could be powering something useful like a medical robot or an electric car. Financial innovation is almost always a bad thing for the common man and the environment.

[ralphgreen]

A successful life, is all about the positive moves we take in life, crypto currency is every man's dream.

[ms.pirate]

Nope, from what i found out, bitcoin is bad for the environment

[leonli]

NO bitcoin is not the solution. However the act of secuitization does make the funding ez, but it has its own issues. Also the carbon emmision trading isn't unique to blockchain. So... no point in doing that either. As using green energy to mine? why not just use the energy for other things. You are using a circular logic to make it sound legit, but it is not.

[wynnebritton]

I don't get it... mining crypto... ? How does someone mine a digit on a computer?

[tchaffman]

Bitcoin may be an environmental nightmare, but that isn't Bitcoin's fault, it's the fault of how we get our energy in the first place. I hope these technologies spur investments in renewable energy, because the future is full of promising but energy-intensive technologies, and we can take advantage of them with a climate conscience if this tech is powered by clean energies.

[rhynosouris]

The answer is to increase the block size.