Is Bitcoin bad for the environment?

Bitcoin always leads to discussions about its energy consumption. Critics often call it wasteful or unsustainable. But to understand Bitcoin’s energy footprint, we need to look beyond surface-level comparisons and ask: what is the energy actually achieving?

Proof of Work

Bitcoin is a decentralized currency secured by a process called Proof-of-Work (PoW). This system requires miners to use electricity to verify and secure transactions. The reward? Newly minted bitcoin and transaction fees.

This is not wasteful by design. In fact, the energy usage is what makes Bitcoin secure. The physical cost to mine blocks makes it extremely expensive to cheat the system. It ensures that once data is added to the blockchain, it’s practically irreversible.

In Bitcoin, energy replaces trust. Rather than relying on a central party like a bank to maintain financial records, Bitcoin uses physics—measurable, objective energy—to secure the network.

Why Bitcoin’s Energy Usage is important

It’s true that Bitcoin consumes a lot of electricity. But energy use alone isn’t a fair measure of environmental harm. The more important question is where that energy comes from and what value it creates.

Unlike most industries, Bitcoin miners are incentivized to use the cheapest energy available which are often renewable or wasted energy sources. Numbers show that over 50% of Bitcoin miners use renewable energy in some capacity.

Bitcoin also helps reduce waste. For instance:

• Capturing flared gas: Instead of burning off excess natural gas at oil fields (which releases harmful methane), miners can use it on-site to generate power for mining.
• Stabilizing solar grids: Solar panels often produce excess power during low-demand hours. Bitcoin miners can soak up this surplus and improve energy efficiency without requiring more infrastructure.

Gold Energy Usage

Traditional stores of value, like gold, also require massive energy inputs. But gold mining is way more complicated and harmful: Damages on the ecosystem, Deforestation, Pollution, … . Bitcoin, by contrast, is mined digitally and doesn’t disrupt physical landscapes. Its environmental footprint is largely tied to electricity.

And unlike financial services like Visa or PayPal, Bitcoin doesn’t rely on a stack of centralized infrastructure to function. It’s a full monetary network, offering settlement, security, and sovereignty in a single package.

Is Bitcoin sustainable in the long term?

Bitcoin’s design naturally incentivizes greener energy. Miners need the lowest-cost electricity to survive, and that often means tapping into hydropower, wind, solar, and even energy that would otherwise be wasted.

As energy grids evolve, Bitcoin’s mobility allows it to adapt. Miners are flexible and can move to where surplus power exists. In many ways, it acts as a buyer of last resort for energy that would otherwise go unused or be harmful to the planet.

While no energy-intensive system is without trade-offs, Bitcoin offers something rare: the potential for a transparent, neutral monetary network with no central point of control. That’s building and the worth energy usage.

Final Thoughts

• Bitcoin’s energy use is essential for its security and trustlessness.
• Most mining is already powered by renewable or wasted energy.
• Proof of Work requires physical energy to ensure decentralisation