- Jul 27, 2015
- 5,458
A White House report on the energy costs of cryptocurrency mining in the US is recommending swift policy actions to avoid disrupting the country's efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
The report [PDF] from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), crypto asset mining in the US uses the same amount of energy as all home computers or residential lighting. The White House claims that's around the same amount as "the annual electricity usage of all conventional data centers in the world," and let's face it, which is more useful? That amount of consumption equates to between 25 and 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide released per year, roughly the same amount emitted by diesel fuel-powered railroad operations across the US. In other words, get ready for a conflict between what some see as an economic innovation and the need to fight climate change.
US warns cryptomining must cut power use over carbon goals
Datacenters or digicash - what's the bigger boon to society?
www.theregister.com