Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
When I say the word Bitcoin, what comes into your mind? Digital money? Expensive? How about energy hog? It turns out, the cryptocurrency uses A LOT of electricity.
Here to explain why are Luci Jones and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team. Welcome, Luci and Fatima!
Luci Jones: Hi, Megan!
Fatima Husain: Hello!
Megan Hall: So let’s start with the basics. What exactly is bitcoin?
Luci Jones: Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency in general, is hard to define, so we reached out to Alex de Vries, a financial economist who thinks a lot about this topic. He says,
Alex de Vries:Bitcoin is money. And it’s just like the dollars in your bank account with one major difference, which is that there is no institutions, no governments controlling Bitcoin
Fatima Husain: We don’t really know where Bitcoin came from. It was started anonymously in 2009. Over time, it’s captured the attention of everyone from professional investors to people who collect it just for fun. Today, over 46 million Americans own at least a share of Bitcoin!
Luci Jones: And this cryptocurrency isn’t just a fun experiment. It’s worth some serious money. When it launched, you could get a coin for about $150, but now, each one is worth about $50,000!.
Megan Hall: Wow, that’s a lot of cash. Can I get in on this? How do I get a coin?
Fatima Husain: You have to mine it! But it won’t be easy.
Megan Hall: What do you mean by mine? I thought bitcoin was just a bunch of 1s and 0s in the cloud?
Luci Jones: Bitcoin mining is sort of like playing the lottery. There’s a limited number of bitcoins out there and to get one, you basically have to solve really complicated math problems and submit a winning guess.
Megan Hall: How complicated are these math problems?
Fatima Husain: Well, they’re so complicated that you’d need to run a lot of high-tech computers and servers non-stop for days and days to find an answer.
Luci Jones: Alex, the financial economist, says all of the people trying to solve these bitcoin math problems submit….
Alex de Vries: more than 140 quintillion guesses every second of the day, non stop, so that’s 140 with 18 zeros after.
Megan Hall: Whoa, that’s a lot of zeros…
Luci Jones: Yeah! Alex says every year, this process of “mining bitcoin” uses as much energy as some countries, like Argentina!
Fatima Husain: Not to mention, the process of solving these bitcoin math problems is incredibly inefficient. There’s only one right guess for each coin — so those computers spend lots of energy on guesses that don’t go anywhere.
Megan Hall: But don’t all forms of money use energy? I mean, you have to print cash. And credit card transactions need electricity.
Luci Jones: Alex says, Bitcoin uses WAY more energy than any other type of currency.
Megan Hall: How much more?
Fatima Husain: Let me put it this way— a single bitcoin transaction is responsible for about the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as 2 million credit card transactions.
Megan Hall: Ok, that’s a lot. Is there any way to make bitcoin more energy efficient? ?
Luci Jones: Not really. If you want to mine bitcoin, your only option is setting up a massive computer center to solve those complex math problems.
Megan Hall: What’s your advice to people who are thinking about investing in Bitcoin?
Fatima Husain: Well, if you’re looking to use less energy in your life, Bitcoin is NOT the way to go.
Luci Jones: If you want to enter the cryptocurrency game, perhaps, do some research into the other, lesser known cryptocurrencies, with an eye towards the energy use behind them.
Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Luci and Fatima!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
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