(CNN Español) – A cryptocurrency that recently consumed so much electricity as Finland and has a carbon footprint comparable to that of Switzerland: this is what is behind the “boom” of bitcoin. The data, published in Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, which specializes in digital currencies, reflects the ambient wave that precedes some experts and figures such as Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft.
In an interview with The New York Times, Gates assures that bitcoin “uses more electricity for transaction than any other method known to humanity”.
What amount of energy do we have? The University of Cambridge also has an index of bitcoin electricity consumption that fuels demand. According to its data, the system that allows the operation of the cryptocurrency has 129.24 hours of operation (TWh) per year, more than that used annually in Argentina. The virtual world has a truck to surpass Sweden in energy consumption.
Although bitcoin is digital, it does not necessarily constitute an ecological option. The process to “extract” these months using computers in large information centers directly in the middle of the environment.
China is the country where the most bitcoins are mined, and in provinces like Sinkiang in the north, carbon is the source that burns the electrical energy to make this type of operation possible. Hecho, according to a study from the University of Cambridge, in Asia and in the Pacific uses major proportions of this mobile fossil for the cryptocurrencies in comparison to other parts of the world.
The production of these digital currencies and the support of the red provoke a level of carbon emissions that could increase global calendars. In the case of bitcoin, a 2019 study published in the Scientific Review Joule it is estimated that the cryptocurrency generates approximately 22 megatons of carbon dioxide per year. In other words, it emits the same amount of CO2 as cities like Las Vegas, Kansas City, Caracas or Lima.
Given the medium-term consequences, the popularity of bitcoin has grown and its price is rapidly disappearing. Virtual currency has surpassed the US $ 60,000 mark, some weeks after passing the US $ 50,000 barrier by unit.