Despite the bitcoin and crypto mining industry being well settled, there is always pressure to change and shape to fit the constantly changing world. An especially hot topic regarding bitcoin and other proof-of-work currencies is energy efficiency. It is true that mining can be very energy-consuming, which does not exactly align with the ongoing global warming. However, there are tools to make crypto mining better for the environment. Some of the tools for this are energy efficiency, utilizing greener energy, and harnessing waste energy for this cause.
Firstly, energy efficiency is a factor that profits every party from the blockchain to a miner. With more energy-efficient mining hardware, the profits are better too. This is also better for the environment. If you combine more efficient hardware with green energy or energy that would go to waste if it wasn’t for mining, the carbon footprint of mining is significantly smaller compared to, for example, mining that utilizes energy produced by fossil fuels.
Every now and then, the energy efficiency conversation around mining leads to an argument about arguments, about whether cryptocurrencies should be based on proof-of-work protocol at all and if the world of crypto requires a shift to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that requires no energy-consuming mining. However, in the case of bitcoin, this kind of change seems unlikely due to the very core values of the project.
Cryptocurrencies and bitcoin are far from perfect, and their development mirrors the current events and challenges of the political and climate-related issues of the world. A miner might think this is a bummer, as this creates an unsure environment to mine and invest in cryptocurrencies. However, when taking the revolutionary goals of blockchain and crypto into account, change is truly inevitable, and actually, it is the driving force of blockchain separating it from the more orthodox financial and technological solutions