SEE THE FULL REPORT HERE IN PDF FORMAT:
An Order-of-Magnitude Estimate of the Relative Sustainability of the Bitcoin Network
There has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding the sustainability of the Bitcoin network, with this fascinating nascent technology facing several unsubstantiated claims by uninformed individuals that Bitcoin is highly unsustainable from a social, economic and environmental point of view. This paper aims to disprove or support these claims about the sustainability of the Bitcoin network, and provide an order-of-magnitude comparison of the relative sustainability of Bitcoin when compared with the incumbent banking industry, the gold production industry, and the process of printing and minting of physical currency.
Widely available public information strongly refutes claims that Bitcoin is unsustainable, and shows that the social, environmental and economic impacts are a minuscule fraction of the impacts that the legacy wealth and monetary systems have on our society and environment.
The results of the research are summarised in the tables below.
Comparison of Annual Economic Costs
| Gross Yearly Cost | |
| Gold Mining | USD$105 billion |
| Gold Recycling | USD$40 billion |
| Paper Currency & Minting | USD$28 billion |
| Banking System Electricity Use | USD$63.8 billion |
| Bitcoin Mining | USD$0.66 billion |
Comparison of Annual Environmental Costs
| Energy Used (GJ) | Tonnes CO2 Produced | Emission Trend | |
| Gold Mining | 475 million | 54 million | Increasing |
| Gold Recycling | 25 million | 4 million | Decreasing |
| Paper Currency & Minting | 39.6 million | 6.7 million | Increasing |
| Banking System | 2340 million | 390 million | Increasing |
| Bitcoin Mining | 3.3 million | 0.55 million | Decreasing |
Comparison of Annual Socioeconomic Costs
| Gold | Fiat Currency | Bitcoin | |
| Worker Deaths | Over 50,000 historically recorded & Over 100 per year | 0 | 0 |
| Corruption | USD$600m | USD$1.60 trillion | Negligible |
| Money Laundering | USD$2.65 trillion | ||
| Black Markets | USD$1.80 trillion |
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SEE THE FULL REPORT HERE IN PDF FORMAT:
An Order-of-Magnitude Estimate of the Relative Sustainability of the Bitcoin Network
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