In the rat race to dig out new cryptocurrencies, the price of a single bitcoin unit hit $47,000. Bitcoins have shot up in price this year. With it, the processing capabilities of mining computers have dwindled.
Findings from a study
An AFP stated that mining bitcoins creates a significant amount of electronic garbage. In fact, it’s a growing danger for the environment. Christian Stoll and Alex de Vries are co-authors of the AFP report. De Vries is an economist working for a central Dutch bank. The economist stated that the average lifecycle of a computer that unearths cryptocurrency units is only 1.3 years old. When you compare this stat to the lifecycle of other electronic items like iPhones, it is extremely short.
This marathon to unearth new Bitcoins produced 30,700 tonnes of electronic waste in 12 months. The quantity is similar to the amount of digital trash produced by telecommunication equipment and small IT firms in a country similar to the Netherlands.
This past Friday, a single bitcoin unit was valued at over $47,000. The stellar increase in cryptocurrency value in the past year has made obsolete the processing power of mining computers. A study published in the scientific journal Elsevier, found that the higher the value of the cryptocurrency, the more electronic waste it will produce.
Nevertheless, despite the large amount of digital waste produced by mining bitcoins, it is still only a small fraction of the global total. Throwing electronic devices contributed to 53.6 million tonnes of garbage last year.
