“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels, and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment,” Musk posted on Twitter Wednesday. The environmental cost is skyrocketing: The Bitcoin network’s annual electrical energy use—as measured in the consumption index—has increased more than 12-fold since 2017 as the cryptocurrency has become a popular investment, Digicomonist estimates. A single transaction uses the same amount of power as an average U.S. household uses over 38 days, leading to the same carbon emissions as the 1.18 million Visa transactions. One factor contributing to Bitcoin’s reputation: About three-quarters of Bitcoin is mined in China, and half of the network is located in a single province where the power largely comes from coal, according to estimates in a March report from BofA Global Research. “Bitcoin today is mostly a derivative of coal,” the BofA analysts wrote.
