Bitcoin mining makes more pollution than gold mining - analysis

The latest research made by the Digiconomist platform tells that Bitcoin mining is actually more pollutive than previously thought by the majority of the community. It produces 20 million tons of carbon dioxide and already consumes more power than the whole state of New Zealand.

But gold mining, while being more ecologically beneficial, still consumes much more power than Bitcoin, shows another chart. When it comes to units, one bitcoin is worth of gold costs 13,272 kWh for mining, and one bitcoin worths 41,221.

And when it comes to carbon footprints, which means how much carbon dioxide remains as a result of mining, only 5,460 kilograms of CO2 are emitted per 1 Bitcoin worth of gold, and 22,313 kilograms - per 1 Bitcoin. This means that quite surprisingly, gold is more environmentally friendly than cryptocurrency, the mining of which does not require to build actual mines or special drilling devices.

The reason why Bitcoin and gold are compared with each other is that the author of the analysis notes how Bitcoin becomes more and more close to gold if speaking about its market properties - people invest in it in the long term, hoping to save or multiply their funds.