Protest in the USA: With dirty cheap electricity to Bitcoins

The huge computing capacities that mine crypto currencies like Bitcoin consume a lot of energy. A case from the USA shows how Bitcoin miners endanger the environment by using cheap electricity from an old power plant.

The citizens’ initiative “Seneca Lake Guardian” is on the way to Buffalo to the local environmental authority. The environmentalists from the small town of Dresden, a few hours away from New York, want, as they say, to save their region – from the cryptocurrency miners. When mining, cryptocurrencies are generated with the help of many computers. According to the activists, this is energetic madness: “The mining of cryptocurrency consumes more energy than entire countries such as Argentina, Sweden or Pakistan,” explains environmentalist Yvonne.

Carsten Schabosky

The cooling water cycle endangers an entire lake

Dresden is located on Lake Seneca. Here in the region they live from tourism, agriculture and viticulture. But then came the Bitcoin. A huge tube protrudes into the water: Here, cooling water is pumped out of the lake without a filter. Fish and plants are also sucked in. The activist Abi says: “We have air problems, water problems and noise pollution. If it stays that way, it will destroy our lives here and in every other city in which such bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies are produced.”

The anger of the citizens’ initiative is directed against the Greenidge Generation company. She bought a shut down power plant to meet the energy requirements for mining Bitcoin and Co. as cheaply as possible. Gas is being burned here again. Estimated production currently: 19 megawatts – enough to supply a small town. This makes the company the first Bitcoin miner with its own power plant.

But Yvonne wants to save her lake and show the Bitcoin miners within their limits: “If this system causes Lake Seneca to overturn, it will take decades for the lake to recover. Because of its depth and size, that could take a long time . ” The fact that Greenidge is legally allowed to channel the heated cooling water back into the lake via a stream means extreme stress for the fish, and algae blooms are also increasing. The air pollution with CO2 in the lake region from the power plant is already enormous. It is currently running with only 13 percent capacity.

Are crypto mines preventing climate targets from being achieved?

Robert Howarth is a professor at Elite Cornell University. His area of ​​expertise: environmental sciences. He’s worried that more Bitcoin mines will go online. “We only want to produce 15 million tons of CO2 in eight years, but even this plant produces a million at full load,” he explains. “If we possibly allow another 18 fossil fuel power plants, that is more than the electricity consumption of the entire state of New York. Then we will not reach our climate target – and that is a serious matter.”

Mason Jappa is one of the bosses at Blockware Solutions. It sells hardware to mine crypto currencies. Jappa admits that energy costs are the only cost involved in mining cryptocurrencies. Otherwise it is a highly profitable business. Greed for money suggests climate protection, so the accusation of the activists. Because other manufacturers of digital money have long since discovered the “cheap electricity from old polluters” model for themselves.