Governments and central bankers, who generally oppose electronic “currencies” would be delighted to see bitcoin trashed at the event.
Bitcoin is the biggie in the universe of electronic cash and is no longer a marginal cryptocurrency.
As bitcoin gains in value and popularity, so too has the environmental scrutiny over the computer-driven “mining” process to create the coins and record them on the decentralized blockchain network.
The Cambridge Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, published by the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Alternative Finance, says the bitcoin network consumes 132 terawatt hours of electricity a year, equivalent to 0.6 per cent of world consumption.
According to a recent New Yorker magazine article, bitcoin’s energy appetite is so voracious that the electricity output of several fossil-fuel power plants is being devoted to bitcoin mining.
The Greenidge website says the plant, in operation since last year, includes a “state-of-the-art data centre for blockchain mining.” The firm’s owners plan to expand the capacity of the plant fivefold in coming years.
And that’s the point.
Another mining centre is Iran, where more than 90 per cent of electricity production comes from burning fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency .
You can’t do any of this with bitcoins, even if you can use them to buy an exceedingly small array of products, including Teslas.
Most governments have net-zero carbon emission goals by 2050, the result of commitments they made at the 2015 Paris climate summit that will be reinforced this fall at the Glasgow summit.
Today, governments could effectively do the same by making it illegal for businesses or consumers to accept bitcoin for transactions, or tax the capital gains on bitcoin investments.