Greenpeace: Proof-of-Work overloads power grids and multiplies greenhouse gas emissions
The American division of Greenpeace has issued a statement that the bitcoin mining industry cooperates too closely with companies that extract fossil fuels and pollute the environment.
The use of the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm for mining causes additional greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the amount of pollution from industrialized countries, Greenpeace believes. And the demand for mining overloads the power grid and increases the costs of U.S. taxpayers.
Greenpeace believes that mining companies are associated with politicians and groups of shadow financiers lobbying their interests, promoting corporate programs that harm people and even restrict democracy.
The managing partner of CH4 Capital, Daniel Batten, responded to the environmentalists' report, announcing that it contains many factual errors, such as incorrect accounting of energy costs per transaction, and inaccurate information such as the proportion of fossil fuels used as an energy source for mining.
