There is a large energy cost associated with mining bitcoin Pulsar Imagens/Alamy
The emissions associated with mining a single bitcoin have increased 126-fold in five years, creating an industry that, according to one measure, is more environmentally damaging聽than global beef production.
Mining bitcoin involves networks of computers competing to guess the solution to a mathematical puzzle. The process authenticates the cryptocurrency鈥檚 transactions, and the first miner to the solve the puzzle is awarded a significant amount of bitcoin. 鈥淏ecause it鈥檚 worth a lot of money, you have a lot of people who are engaging in this guessing game,鈥 says…
