11 Apr. (Portaltic/EP) –
the mine of Texas Riot Platforms Bitcoin (United States) consumes the same amount of energy as the nearest 300,000 homes, making it the largest spending mining operation in this country.
It is one of the conclusions reached by the journalist Gabriel JX Dance after an investigation published in The New York Timeswith which he intends to demonstrate the large energy consumption that occurs with the activity of this industry.
In this article, he points out that by February 14, 2021, almost 40 people had died as a result of the low temperatures recorded in the city of Austin, Texas, while in another part of the state a series of computers were consuming enough electricity with Bitcoin operations enough to supply about 6,500 homes.
In all, The New York Times has identified 34 large-scale mining operations, which “can create costs, including higher electricity bills and enormous carbon pollution,” according to this report.
Although this cryptocurrency industry was located mainly in China, it was in June 2021 when the United States became the world leader and, since then, energy consumption has only grown, as has the negative impact on the environment.
So much so that the equipment dedicated to mining in the city of Kearney (Nebraska) consume as much electricity as the 73,000 houses around it, while in Dalton (Georgia) this consumption is equivalent to the 97,000 homes surrounding them.
Worse is the case of the Riot Platforms mine, in Rockdale, Texas. which is positioned as the one that consumes the most energy in the entire United States, since in its operations it uses the same electricity used by 300,000 homes as a whole.
To average the 34 operations identified in this article, The New York Times determines that each one consumes at least 30,000 times more energy than the average US home. In fact, in total, these mining centers consume more than 3,900 megawatts of electricity, that is, the same electricity as the three million homes that are located around it.
According to data from the technology company WattTime, Bitcoin mining in the United States alone consumes electricity equivalent to that generated by 3.5 million gasoline cars.
Regarding pollution, taking the 34 mines studied as a reference, The New York Times also concludes that they were generating almost 16.4 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.
GREATER NEGATIVE THAN POSITIVE IMPACT
He consumer price increase It is a direct consequence of the emergence of these mining industries in the country, to the point that the price of electricity has increased by 5 percent -that is, 1,800 million per year, according to data from this newspaper and the Wood Mackenzie consultancy.
Unlike other industries, such as metal and plastic manufacturing, which require large amounts of electricity, pollute and drive up prices, Bitcoin mining creates “significantly fewer jobs, so stimulate less local economic developmentas this newspaper recalls.
He also points out that there are ways to operate cryptocurrencies using less electricity, as is the case with Ethereum, which modified its algorithm to reduce the electricity it consumes.
Unlike this second most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin users defend its current algorithm for being resistant to attacks for longer and on a larger scale, which promises Greater security of your assets.
