Cryptocurrency goes greener as governments get tougher

摘要

Conventional financial institutions and industries might be looking to reduce their carbon footprint, but cryptocurrency miners are now following suit, with as much as half of bitcoin now estimated to be powered by renewable energy sources. Cryptocurrencies are mined by computers that process complex algorithms - operations that require huge amounts of power. As the market has expanded, bitcoin mining now uses more than 60 times more electricity than just six years ago and carbon emissions from the process could face increasing regulation, Citigroup said in a recent report. The amount of electricity needed to mine bitcoin is so great that nations are cracking down, claiming that such power demand could even exacerbate climate change.