Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogle bomb here. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of buzz these days about cryptocurrencies, a sort of private
Speaker 1: sector digital version of money that's protected from theft by
Speaker 1: cryptography and counted through blockchain technology, which creates a multitude
Speaker 1: of digital ledgers on computers scattered far and wide. In
Speaker 1: addition to being used to buy things, cryptocurrencies can be
Speaker 1: bought or sold by investors. In April, according to CNBC,
Speaker 1: the global market for cryptocurrencies groot over two trillion dollars
Speaker 1: for the first time ever, with Bitcoin, the biggest digital asset,
Speaker 1: accounting for more than half of that value. But scientists
Speaker 1: and others worry that Bitcoin and these other cryptocurrencies might
Speaker 1: pose a danger to the planet. And that's because their
Speaker 1: blockchains require computers all over the planet to solve complex
Speaker 1: equation in order to verify transactions. Using your computer to
Speaker 1: help pull this off is called mining, and it can
Speaker 1: be lucrative because the people who do it earn cryptocurrency
Speaker 1: as a reward. The problem, critics say, is that all
Speaker 1: of those calculations needed to solve the equations cumulatively consume
Speaker 1: large amounts of electricity. Bitcoin already uses a hundred and
Speaker 1: forty nine point six three taro watt hours a year,
Speaker 1: more than entire countries such as Malaysia and Sweden, according
Speaker 1: to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. Microsoft co founder
Speaker 1: Bill Gates recently told journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin that bitcoin
Speaker 1: quote uses more energy per transaction than any other method
Speaker 1: known to mankind. It's difficult to determine exactly how much
Speaker 1: of that electricity is generated by burning coal and gas,
Speaker 1: whose emissions contribute to climate change, but since nearly two
Speaker 1: thirds of the world's total electricity is produced by energy
Speaker 1: plants that use fossil fuels, it's not hard to imagine
Speaker 1: that some cryptocurrencies increasingly could contribute to climate change. A
Speaker 1: study published in the journal Nature Climate concluded that the
Speaker 1: growth of bitcoin could produce enough emissions by itself to
Speaker 1: raise global temperatures by about three and a half degrees
Speaker 1: fahrenheit or two degrees celsius as soon as twenty three,
Speaker 1: though other researchers have argued that this projection over estimates
Speaker 1: the problem, and while any contribution towards climate change sounds scary,
Speaker 1: even that studies lead author Camilo Mora seems hopeful that
Speaker 1: the problem of cryptocurrencies energy consumption can be remedied before
Speaker 1: things get to that point before the article. This episode
Speaker 1: is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke by email with Mora,
Speaker 1: who's an associate professor in the Department of Geography and
Speaker 1: Environment at the University of Hawaii at Manoah. He said,
Speaker 1: the cryptocurrencies are here to stay. This is a technology
Speaker 1: that provides several benefits and there is clearly a huge
Speaker 1: public appetite for it. As a scientist studying this, one
Speaker 1: obviously gets very concerned over the environmental impact of technologies
Speaker 1: that are not ready for showtime. However, I am positive
Speaker 1: that just as other technologies, there is room for positive change.
Speaker 1: More thinks that like other technologies, cryptocurrencies will evolve. It
Speaker 1: wasn't that long ago that cell phones, for example, were bulky,
Speaker 1: expensive bricks instead of the affordable gadgets that we slip
Speaker 1: into our pockets every day. More cites several emerging cryptocurrencies,
Speaker 1: including Stellar and Tron, that he says have less environmental
Speaker 1: impact than Bitcoin, and he believes that in general they'll
Speaker 1: all have smaller ecological footprints in the future. Some new
Speaker 1: cryptocurrencies strive to consume less energy by employing alternative methods
Speaker 1: such as proof of steak, which allows a minor to
Speaker 1: validate transactions on the blockchain based upon the number of
Speaker 1: coins that the minor holds instead of by halving an equation.
Speaker 1: Another potential solution is to transition cryptocurrency networks away from
Speaker 1: energy sources that contribute to climate change. As the Cambridge
Speaker 1: Index website notes, alternative energy sources such as solar and
Speaker 1: wind already produce enough energy to power the entire bitcoin
Speaker 1: network nine times over. To that end, thirty five companies
Speaker 1: and individuals who are involved in cryptocurrency, finance, energy, and
Speaker 1: prominent non governmental organizations have formed the Cryptoclimate Accord or
Speaker 1: c A, which aims to make the cryptocurrency industries energy
Speaker 1: consumption a dent renewable by how stuff Works also spoke
Speaker 1: via email with Doug Miller. He's the global markets lead
Speaker 1: for Chord Participant Energy Web, a global nonprofit that develops
Speaker 1: and distributes open source software for energy companies that supports
Speaker 1: the use of clean energy, the tracing of carbon emissions,
Speaker 1: and integration of distributed energy resources such as home rooftop
Speaker 1: solar panel. He said, we are tackling this by developing
Speaker 1: various open source solutions that make it easier for crypto
Speaker 1: mining facilities, exchanges, and investors and holders to procure renewables
Speaker 1: based on the measured or estimated energy use associated with
Speaker 1: their crypto related activities. He pointed out that there is
Speaker 1: variation in the energy consumption of different cryptocurrency blockchain systems
Speaker 1: and that not all of them are as energy intensive
Speaker 1: as bitcoin. He said, Nevertheless, the c c A isn't
Speaker 1: entering conversations around promoting one consensus protocol over another since
Speaker 1: we're focused on decarbonizing the entire sector as fast as possible.
Speaker 1: The central aim of the c c A is to
Speaker 1: turn all crypto related energy use into a source of
Speaker 1: new renewable energy demand so we can accelerate investments in
Speaker 1: additional renewable energy facilities. In other words, we see the
Speaker 1: cryptosector as an important and emerging renewable energy buyer class.
Speaker 1: Miller continued, We also plan to gather input from various
Speaker 1: stakeholders and researchers to provide guidance around whether and how
Speaker 1: additional measures should be implemented so that the sector can
Speaker 1: fully decarbonize and provide an example for other industries to follow. Also,
Speaker 1: on a side note, Elon Musk announced on May twelve
Speaker 1: one that test Slope is no longer accepting bitcoin until
Speaker 1: he's sure it can be produced sustainably. But to keep
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency network's energy use in perspective, it's important to realize
Speaker 1: that those often plugged in but often inactive electronic gadgets
Speaker 1: and appliances in our homes are even more voracious users
Speaker 1: of electricity. The Cambridge Index's website estimates that the electricity
Speaker 1: consumption of such vampire devices over the course of a
Speaker 1: year is enough to power the global bitcoin network for
Speaker 1: one point nine years. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article cryptocurrency has a huge, huge negative impact on climate
Speaker 1: change on how stuff works dot com, written by Patrick J.
Speaker 1: Keider brain Stuff. This production of I Heart Radio in
Speaker 1: partnership with how stuff works dot Com and is produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts. For my heart Radio,
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