High-profile Bitcoin supporters have come out in force to defend their favourite cryptocurrency. A report published last week – sponsored by Tesla Inc’s Elon Musk, Square Inc’s Jack Dorsey, and ARK’s Cathie Wood, one of Wall Street’s hottest investment pros – depicts Bitcoin as an “ideal” part of renewable energy projects involving solar, wind and battery storage technology.
Bitcoin has such a massive carbon footprint because it relies on something known as a proof of work consensus to validate transactions and create and distribute new coins. The most competitive “mining rigs” that race to verify transactions for the reward of new Bitcoins are often comprised of thousands of computers labouring in unison and eating up massive amounts of energy.