SUSTAINABILITY
Is crypto progressing towards renewables ? Even before The Merge , crypto mining operations were making some progress towards adopting renewable energy , and in the process cleaning up their act . But the extent of this was limited , with The Merge being a definite catalyst , Musii says .
“ Up until The Merge , most of the crypto mining has been powered by fossil fuels , particularly coal as one of the cheapest and most widespread sources of energy ,” he says . “ The Merge has undoubtedly been a positive development for the crypto industry , but more work is needed to promote the adoption of renewable energy sources in mining and other crypto-related activities .”
This will be particularly true of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are hesitant in adopting the proof-of-stake mechanism , as has been predicted . According to Katten ’ s report , Bitcoin accounted for about 68.4 % of the total power usage of the top 20 mineable cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation in 2020 . Other wellknown coins like Ethereum , LiteCoin and Monero accounted for 11.5 %, 2.6 % and 3.4 %, respectively , at the time – although the company points out that this data was before the explosion of DogeCoin , which is likely to affect more recent versions of the same dataset .
“ Efforts continue to be made by some mining operations to use renewable energy and improve energy efficiency ,” Servadei says . He claims that adoption of greener practices within crypto are being driven by a combination of market pressure and public scrutiny . “ Despite these efforts , the overall environmental impact of proof-ofwork cryptocurrencies is still high and not comparable to proof-of-stake ,” he says .
90 July 2023