{"id":38665,"date":"2021-03-10T16:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=38665"},"modified":"2025-08-30T05:51:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T02:51:44","slug":"bill-gates-sees-bitcoin-as-a-problem-for-the-global-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/bill-gates-sees-bitcoin-as-a-problem-for-the-global-climate\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Gates sees Bitcoin as a problem for the global climate."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">One Bitcoin transaction uses more energy than any other method, which weighs on the global climate. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates expressed this view in an interview with<\/span> <a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/09\/business\/dealbook\/bill-gates-bitcoin.html\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"noopener\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">New York Times<\/span><\/a><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">The publication noted that the annual carbon footprint from mining the first cryptocurrency and validating transactions on its network is equivalent to the emissions of all of New Zealand or Argentina.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">A data scientist at the Dutch central bank, Alex de Vries, calculated that each Bitcoin transaction leads to 300 kg of CO2 \u2014 the same as 750,000 Visa transactions, <\/span><a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jonathanponciano\/2021\/03\/09\/bill-gates-bitcoin-crypto-climate-change\/?sh=a110b6b68221\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"noopener\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Forbes<\/span><\/a><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"> noted. The difference lies in the nature of the distributed ledger, which provides transaction transparency and censorship resistance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Despite efforts to improve environmental protection, Gates sought to avoid being categorical in his remarks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">\\&#8221;If this is green energy, and it does not displace other uses<\/span><\/i> <span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">\u2014<\/span><i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"> Bitcoin mining may be acceptable\\&#8221;<\/span><\/i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">, \u2014<\/span><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"> the billionaire said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">According to a study by Cambridge University\\&#8217;s business school, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/cambridge-university-tallies-100-million-cryptocurrency-users-worldwide\">39% of all Bitcoin mining<\/a> was conducted using renewable energy sources (RES). The most popular electricity source for mining farms is <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/more-than-100-million-users-and-the-main-trends-in-the-cryptocurrency-market-a-cambridge-report\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Hydroelectric power plants<\/span><\/a>, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Earlier, the Norwegian holding company Aker announced plans to deploy <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/norways-oil-magnates-company-eyes-bitcoin\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Bitcoin mining using green energy<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">In December 2020, the payments company Square, founded by Jack Dorsey, announced plans to reduce its carbon emissions from its operations to zero by 2030. The firm will also allocate <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/square-to-allocate-10m-for-renewable-energy-bitcoin-mining\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">$10 million to support Bitcoin mining powered by renewables<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog news on <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ForkLog\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener\\\">Twitter<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One Bitcoin transaction uses more energy than any other method, weighing on the global climate. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates expressed this view in an interview with the New York Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2107,18,1137,1259],"class_list":["post-38665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bill-gates","tag-bitcoin","tag-cryptocurrency-mining","tag-ecology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"19","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38667,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38665\/revisions\/38667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}