Once-dead coal-fired power plants roaring back to life and spewing hazardous emissions, overheating trout chopped up by utility water pipes, nonstop low-frequency noise – these are just some of the ways bitcoin mining is polluting communities across the U.S.
In six case studies, EWG profiles how a cryptocurrency mining process known as “proof of work” can create air, climate, water, waste, and noise pollution for those living nearby. The report spotlights the experiences of locals in six states and how the arrival of cryptocurrency mining has changed their lives and environments for the worse.
Not all bitcoin mines are alike. Some rely on the resurrection of dormant fossil fuel power plants, some find low-cost high-pollution fuel sources like burning coal waste in Pennsylvania, and others flare gas from oil wells to generate the necessary electricity, like the mines blighting Montana’s scenery.
They all use the same technology, individual computer hardware no bigger than a shoe box or two, all competing to solve the same puzzle and earn a few bitcoin. But it takes thousands of these mining computers, called rigs, to become competitive in the mining industry. That’s why some companies are placing multiple shipping crates full of bitcoin mining rigs in communities across the U.S. – in one of the stories this report covers, an industrial-scale bitcoin mine sits just a few hundred feet from a home.
What these mines have in common is their use of proof of work, which is wasteful by design. This system, a type of software to record and manage bitcoin transactions, has proven highly inefficient, requiring massive amounts of fossil fuel-generated electricity to operate. Proof of work is a source of constant noise, a blight in communities across the country, and a hotbed of fraud and corruption that bilks consumers and ratepayers out of billions of dollars.
Change is needed, and it’s needed urgently.
Despite staunch opposition nearly everywhere bitcoin is mined, Wall Street bankers and other large financial backers manage to continue this assault on climate and communities across the country.
Currently, the most efficient bitcoin mining computers release more than 105 metric tons of carbon dioxide per bitcoin mined, but average emissions per bitcoin are easily double that. To fight the climate crisis, we need to cut emissions – not increase them.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The bitcoin community is full of innovators who have changed its code before. Other processes also exist that use much less electricity and have none of the pollution implications outlined in these six case studies.
While communities suffer, Wall Street cashes in
In the wake of a tidal wave of cryptocurrency bankruptcies that have seen average consumers’ bitcoin and other crypto deposits completely wiped out, big Wall Street players have used this moment as a chance to invest in a largely unregulated industry that actively contributes to the climate crisis and harm of communities across the country. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Fidelity all have climate commitments, but they invest in and offer crypto trading and management services that cause average Americans more harm than good.
Despite its anti-establishment decentralized-finance roots, bitcoin is now the darling of big banks, multi-billion-dollar hedge funds, and private equity interests. The days of individual entrepreneurs and local businesses carving a niche out of the bitcoin business have long passed.
As its cycle of endless growth, energy consumption, and increasing emissions continues, the only question remaining is how much will bitcoin cost us all in rising electricity prices and emissions?
Much to the distress of their neighbors, bitcoin mining operations, in search of low-cost electricity, cheap land, and limited local planning or zoning regulations, are taking root in small rural communities located in pristine natural environments across the country.
Bitcoin’s insatiable need for ever-more energy has led the industry to revive shuttered coal-fired power plants, siphon off energy resources from more economically productive uses, and even burn piles of waste coal too dirty for coal companies to sell.
In other places, the incessant din created by mining operations continues 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is driving nearby residents to desperation. Many local governments have found themselves unable to effectively address the noise, leaving residents in these places to fend for themselves against the well-funded crypto mining menace.
Despite staunch opposition nearly everywhere bitcoin is mined, Wall Street bankers and other large financial backers manage to continue this assault on climate and communities across the country.
In six case studies, EWG profiles how a cryptocurrency mining process known as “proof of work” can create air, climate, water, waste and noise pollution issues for those living nearby.
What can be done?
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy published a report last fall that calls on federal agencies to take more steps to assess the potential environmental and energy problems associated with proof of work digital assets. It also recommended Congress consider legislation.
The report even went so far as to suggest the federal government should limit or eliminate the use of highly energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining methods, such as proof of work, should the measures outlined in the report fail to reduce climate impacts.
Initiatives are needed – whether regulatory, legislative, or voluntary – to identify less harmful approaches that would retain the potential benefits of blockchain technology, like proof of stake or some as-yet-undiscovered method that would make bitcoin both efficient and environmentally friendly.
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin use a software code, proof of work, that require the use of massive computer arrays to validate and secure transactions. Based on estimates by the University of Cambridge, these currently use as much electricity in a year as Greece, Sweden or the Netherlands. Yet bitcoin’s electricity use is expected to grow, which increases along with its price.
