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Numerous studies have highlighted the carbon footprint and electricity consumption issues of Bitcoin transactions. Founder of digiconomist Alex de Vries and researcher at MIT’s Energy and Environmental Policy Research Center, Christian Stoll, has published a new study that sheds light on e-waste generated by Bitcoin.
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This study, “titled Bitcoin’s Growing E-Waste Problem,” provides new insight into another major piece of Bitcoin’s unnecessary design.
Bitcoin’s e-waste problem
Most studies have ignored the fact that Bitcoin miners go through a large amount of short-lived material that could increase the global growth of e-waste.
“Electronic waste is a growing threat to our environment, from toxic chemicals and heavy metals leaching into soils to air and water pollution caused by improper recycling. “
According to the study, a single transaction generates 272 grams of electronic waste, the same amount of electronic waste as throwing two iPhone 12 mini in the trash. In 2020, the bitcoin network processed 112.5 million transactions (up from 539 billion processed by traditional payment service providers in 2019).
“Bitcoin’s annual e-waste production stands at 30.7 kilotons in May 2021,” they claim. “This number is comparable to the amount of small waste IT and telecommunications equipment produced by a country like the Netherlands.” This figure could rise to more than 64.4 kilotons of waste.
They also point out that demand for mining equipment is already disrupting the global semiconductor supply chain today, which is currently suffering from a global shortage due to the increased needs of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as a war. Chinese-American trade and a drought in Taiwan.
BTC trading at $47.6K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Additionally, Bitcoin mining has gone from a simple activity performed on a laptop to a complex and very expensive game performed via powerful ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits). These ASICs are specifically designed to mine crypto transactions. And as technology evolves, miners must constantly replace their ASICs with newer, more powerful ones to stay competitive. As a result, these single-use ASIC chips quickly become waste. According to the researchers, “the lifespan of bitcoin mining devices remains limited to only 1.29 years”,
Researchers in Europe and the United States also claim that miners dump tens of thousands of tons of ASIC rigs every year and contribute to the ever-growing environmental challenge.
Alex and Stoll also warn that the e-waste problem will likely increase further if the price of cryptocurrency continues to rise, as this will prompt more investment and replacement of ASIC hardware.
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If the community were to try to reduce their e-waste problem, the paper concludes, they would have to replace the bitcoin mining process in “its entirety with a more sustainable alternative.” “Proof of work”, as an experimental replacement. “The first miner to find a PoW [proof of work] which satisfies predetermined conditions broadcasts the block to all nodes in the network. Receiving nodes express their acceptance of the new block by building on it, ”the document explains.
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