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Friday, December 15, 2017

So, You Think Coal Is Dead? -- December 15, 2017

Updates

February 11, 2018: now it's Iceland
Original Post 

Chinese Coal -- Bitcoin -- Bitter News

One bitcoin transaction now uses as much energy as your house in a week -- Motherboard, November 1, 2017. Bitbcoin's surge in price has sent its electricity consumption soaring.

Bitcoin mining guzzles energy -- and its carbon footprint just keeps growing -- Wired, December 6, 2017. Bitcoin is slowing the effort to achieve a rapid transition away from fossil fuels. What’s more, this is just the beginning. Given its rapidly growing climate footprint, bitcoin is a malignant development, and it’s getting worse.

Bitcoin mining on track to consume all the world's energy by 2020 -- Newsweek, December 11, 2017.
A network that underpins the virtual currency bitcoin is projected to require all of the world’s current energy production in order to support itself within three years, according to estimates.
The amount of power necessary to support bitcoin has increased significantly in recent months, as its price has surged to record levels. On Monday, one bitcoin was worth around $16,500—a twentyfold increase since the start of 2017.
Bitcoin mining—the process of generating new units of the currency by confirming bitcoin transactions on an online ledger called the blockchain—requires computing power, which is used to solve the complex mathematical puzzles used in the mining process. These problems are designed to become more complicated as more computers join the cryptocurrency's network.
Coal is fueling bitcoin's meteoric rise -- Bloomberg, December 14, 2017. China dominates bitcoin making and is the world's top coal burner. 

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