From 60 to 270 million tons of carbon dioxide (СО2) is emitted into the atmosphere every year due to cryptocurrency mining.  

The modern technology of virtual money production is destroying our common home.

The total СО2 emissions resulting from cryptocurrency mining adds up to 0.7% of the carbon dioxide volume.

Researchers estimate that approximately 121,36 terawatt-hours of electricity are spent annually on bitcoin mining, that is more than Argentina consumes (https://3dnews.ru/1032378/na-dobichu-bitkoinov-uhodit-bolshe-elektroenergii-chem-potreblyaet-argentina).

The world is sounding the alarms.

“Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind,” Bill Gates told Andrew, adding, “It’s not a great climate thing.”  (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/business/dealbook/bill-gates-bitcoin.html).

«Bitcoin’s Climate Problem» (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/business/dealbook/bitcoin-climate-change.html).

It looks like people opened Pandora’s box, which might turn our blue planet into a lifeless desert like Mercury or Venus.

Mankind, allegedly combating carbon emissions into the atmosphere, came up with the conversion of electricity into heat to create virtual pseudo-wealth, and that turned out to be a rather rash step.

Today the bitcoin capitalization is more than one trillion dollars   (https://coinmarketcap.com/). The entire Russian stock market – for comparison – is about 55 trillion rubles.   (http://www.finmarket.ru/shares/news/5390669), that is less than one bitcoin capitalization.

To generate 121 terawatts of energy spent on the cryptocurrency mining maintenance it is needed to spend 2-3 times more energy, that is to consume 240-350 terawatts of electric power because the electrical efficiency of a modern natural gas combined-cycle power plant is 60%, gas-fired power plant 42%, while that of a coal-burning power plant is only 32-34%  (http://needtoknow.nas.edu/energy/energy-sources/fossil-fuels/natural-gas/).

~240-350 х 10^12 watt!!!

Thus, to generate such a volume of energy it is necessary to burn  20-30 million tons of oil or 60 -100 million tons of coal because the average calorific value of oil is 12.2 kW per 1 liter and that of brown coal is 3.6 kW per 1kg.

Today, oil consumption is about 95-100 million barrels per day, i.e. 13 million tons per day. That is, bitcoin mining spends 1.75 – 2.5 of the total daily oil consumption.

As a result, approximately 60-87 million tons of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere when 20-30 million tons of oil are burned or 180-270 million tons of carbon dioxide when 66-100 million tons of coal are burned.

Is not it worthwhile asking: WHAT FOR?