Bitcoin And Green Cryptocurrency Dream: Elon Musk May Have Smartly Pointed Out The Energy Problem
Bitcoin And Green Cryptocurrency Dream: Elon Musk May Have Smartly Pointed Out The Energy Problem
Bitcoin
It isn’t just Bitcoin that isn’t green. Are there any environmentally friendly cryptocurrencies? Could there be a shift starting with the new cryptocurrency, Chia?
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VISHAL MATHUR
Updated: May 14, 2021, 12:02 IST
All it took was for Elon Musk to point out that cryptocurrencies come at a great cost to the environment, for all the hype and excitement to subside, common sense to prevail and a bit more attention be given to how much energy these crypto coins do consume. It was in March that Tesla had said they’d accept Bitcoin as a mode of payment for buying their electric cars. No longer. The reason—the increased energy usage as Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies are mined and transactions are done. The thing is, these digital currencies require really powerful computers in a mesh, and these require electricity. The data speaks for itself. The University of Cambridge and the International Energy Agency numbers indicate a significant spike in 2021 for the Bitcoin energy consumption levels. It isn’t just Bitcoin that isn’t green. Are there any environmentally friendly cryptocurrencies?
To be fair, we really have to go with a mix of what the crypto claims are and what the data shows, for networks for which energy consumption data is available. On January 1 last year, the Bitcoin energy consumption index suggests a high of 125.42 TWh, or Terawatt-hour, in power consumption. Simply put, 1 Kilowat (kW) is equal to 1000 Wh, or watt-hour. And 1,000,000,000,000 Wh is equal to 1 TWh. For perspective, Scotland which has a population of around 5 million consumes around 25 TWh of electricity every year. Bitcoin mining and transactions used 5X more. And that’s before things really spiked since the start of the year. The same data suggests that on May 13, 2021, the Bitcoin network consumption pegged at 151.16 TWh with a peak of 519.96 TWh consumption. You get the idea, I’d hope.
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Hating on Bitcoin for guzzling electricity would be fallacious, and selective at best. To understand how a lot of cryptocurrencies work, we’ll still take the example of Bitcoin, but to illustrate without complex terminology why cryptocurrency networks in general guzzle energy. The thing is, digital currency such as Bitcoin isn’t owned by one authority and the decentralized system means it needs a network of computers around the globe working at capacity to complete complex calculations to mine new coins and complete transactions with existing crypto coins. This is also known as proof of work (PoW). This usually runs for hours, if not days. The faster a computer does these calculations, the quicker the process moves—but at the same time, a powerful computer with a fast processor and graphics card, will also dial up the energy requirements. Just to add to this here, it was in February that we had reported how Nvidia, a brand popular with gamers for their graphics cards, had rolled out a driver update for one of their latest cards because crypto miners were attempting to buy this in hoards which left gamers with an out-of-stock situation. The attempt was to cut down the hash rate (mining efficiency) of the RTX 3060 in half for Ethereum miners, to make this card less attractive to crypto miners and will allow gamers to buy these instead.
Ethereum, the second most valuable and popular cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, is rising up the consumption ladder as fast, if not faster. That being said, the Ethereum network could be making the switch, sometime later this year, from the PoW system to what is claimed to be a more efficient Proof of Stake system. At this time, data from Digiconomist collected for the Ethereum Energy Consumption Index says that Ethereum consumes electrical energy that is comparable to the power consumption of Hong Kong and the resulting carbon footprint is comparable to that of Lebanon. Every single Ethereum transaction consumes the energy that is equal to the power consumption of an average US home over a period of 2.82 days. The carbon footprint for a single transaction? Same as you watching 6,610 hours of YouTube videos.
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Could there be a shift starting with the new cryptocurrency, Chia? The creation of the founder of BitTorrent, Bram Cohen, there is a big difference in how Chia operates compared with the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Bitcoin Cash and others. The Chia Network works on something called “farming" and not mining. The details suggest this uses proof of space and time, and not PoW which uses extreme energy. Instead of running the processor and graphics cards at high power settings, Chia will use the unused space in your PCs storage drive to farm the currency. The other advantage for crypto enthusiasts is that you’d not have to spend on a faster processor or graphics card—just a storage that’s quick enough for farming. The result is, much lesser energy consumed than Bitcoin or Ethereum.
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There are projects which want to change all the heavy power consumption by cryptocurrency. Neptune Digital Assets, a cryptocurrency mining company in Canada is working on the “clean energy Bitcoin" project with another cryptocurrency mining firm Link Global Technologies, and the attempt is to use renewable sources such as solar, wind and natural gas to power Bitcoin. “Green power is getting cheaper and cheaper. But there has to be a push for more renewable energy sources for Bitcoin mining," said Cale Moodie, CEO, while speaking with Global News. The problem has a part of its roots in China, which accounts for a large demographic of miners. These businesses use coal for a large part of the year, because it is cheaper.
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In the meantime, Elon Musk and Tesla will be holding on to their crypto coins, in the hope that using them becomes a lesser load on the environment we live in. “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," says Elon Musk. To be fair, the cryptocurrency load on the environment will have a lot to do with the energy sources being used by miners. A lot like how and where people plug in their electric cars, isn’t it?
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VISHAL MATHUR Vishal Mathur is Associate Editor – Technology for News18. He’s written about personal technology for more than 12 years and is often seen on the News18 Tech & Auto Show. He still searches for a peaceful analogue space in a digital world, is finicky about keyboards and finds software updates and spec sheets strangely therapeutic. You will find him on Twitter @vishalmathur85.
TAGS:BITCOIN | BITCOIN CASH | BITCOIN MINING | BUY CRYPTO COINS | BUY CRYPTOCURRENCY | CARBON FOOTPRINT | CHIA | CHIA CRYPTO | CHINA | COMPUTER | CRYPTO MINING | CRYPTOCURRENCY | CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING | DOGECOIN | ELECTRIC CARS | ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION | ELECTRICITY USE | ELON MUSK | ENERGY | ENVIRONMENT | ETHEREUM | ETHEREUM MINING | EXPLAINED | FARMING | LITECOIN | MINING | NEPTUNE DIGITAL ASSETS | NVIDIA | NVIDIA RTX 3060 | PC | POW | POWER | PROOF OF WORK | TESLA | TRADE CRYPTO
FIRST PUBLISHED: MAY 14, 2021, 12:02 IST
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NEWS18/NEWS/TECH/TECH LAUNCHES OF THE WEEK: REDMI NOTE 10S, DELL XPS 15 AND XPS 17, REDMI WATCH, AND MORE
Tech Launches of The Week: Redmi Note 10S, Dell XPS 15 and XPS 17, Redmi Watch, and More
Redmi Note 10S and Redmi Watch
Several important product launches including the Redmi Note 10S, the Asus ZenFone 8 Series, Intel's latest 11th Generation Core H Tiger Lake series, new controllers for the PlayStation 5, and more took place this week in India and abroad.
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NEWS18.COM
Updated: May 15, 2021, 17:49 IST
Every week, there are tons of new gadgets and accessories that are launched globally. This week, we saw several launches ranging from much-awaited smartphones, to accessories, to smartphone chips, to even PC CPUs and mobile gaming processors. Several important product launches including the Redmi Note 10S, the Asus ZenFone 8 Series, Intel’s latest 11th Generation Core H Tiger Lake series, new controllers for the PlayStation 5, and more took place this week in India and abroad. MediaTek also launched its new chipset for mid-range smartphones named the MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC. Let us take a look at all the tech launches that took place this week:
Editor’s note: The following list is not comprehensive, but includes a list of gadgets and products that were notably launched through the week, and would be of the most relevance for buyers to know.
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1. Oppo Find X3 Pro Mars Exploration Edition
Oppo’s latest flagship, the Oppo Find X3 Pro got a new variant this week in the form of the Mars Exploration Edition. The Oppo Find X3 Pro Mars Exploration edition comes with a new Sky Rock Grey colour and is equipped with a custom OS theme. The smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset paired with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. The smartphone features a quad rear camera setup that includes a 50-megapixel primary shooter, a 50-megapixel wide-angel shooter, 13-megapixel telephoto lens, and a 3-megapixel macro lens. Up front, the Oppo Find X3 Pro Mars Exploration Edition features a 32-megapixel selfie shooter.
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2. ZTE Axon 30 Ultra
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Chinese smartphone maker ZTE launched its latest offering, the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra in its home country this week. The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, paired with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage. The smartphone has a 6.67-ich full-HD+ AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate. There is a quad rear camera setup on the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra that includes three 64-megapixel sensors and one 8-megapixel periscope lens. Up front, there is a 16-megapixel front camera on the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra.
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3. New PlayStation 5 DualSense Controllers
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Sony has announced two new colours for the DualSense controller including a Cosmic Red and a Midnight Black colourway. Sony will start selling the two new controllers globally starting next month. The new DualSense colours are inspired by the galaxy. Sony, in a blog post said that the Cosmic Red controller is inspired by the unique vivid shades of red found throughout the cosmos. The Midnight Black colourway, on the other hand, “reflects how we view space through the night sky." The two new colours add to the default black and white colourway of the console. The new colours come with a matte finish and the white part of the standard DualSense controller has been replaced with red on the Cosmic Red and black on Midnight Black variants. The blue light around the touchpad remains the same.
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4. Redmi Note 10S
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Xiaomi also refreshed its Redmi Note 10 series with the new Redmi Note 10S. The Redmi Note 10S sports a 6.43-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,400 pixels) AMOLED hole-punch display with MediaTek Helio G95 chipset under the hood. It supports dual-SIM cards and runs on Android 11-based MIUI 12.5 out-of-the-box. Its quad rear camera setup includes a 64-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, 2-megapixel macro sensor, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. At the front, there’s a 13-megapixel shooter for selfie and video calling. The Redmi Note 10S will be available across Mi.com, Amazon, Mi Home, and Mi Studio stores from May 18 at Rs 14,999 for the base 6GB + 64GB storage variant. Its 6GB + 128GB storage model carries a price tag of Rs 15,999.
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5. MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC
Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek has launched a new 5G smartphone chipset named MediaTek Dimensity 900. The MediaTek Dimensity is based on a 6nm process similar to the Dimensity 1100 and Dimensity 1200. The new SoC is a quad-core chip with third-generation MediaTek APU AI. It has the integrated Arm Mali-G68 MC4 GPU for handling graphically intensive tasks. The MediaTek Dimensity 900 is a successor to the MediaTek Dimensity 820 SoC, which was built on a 7nm architecture and brings several improvements over the older chip. The chipset is designed for mid-range smartphones but there is no word on what will be the first smartphone to be powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 900 chipset.
6. Asus ZenFone 8 Series
Asus this week unveiled its ZenFone 8 series that includes two flagship-level smartphones which come with an affordable price tag. The Asus ZenFone 8 comes as a small flagship smartphone with a 5.9-inch display, making the smartphone one of the very few flagships that are available in a compact design. The Asus ZenFone 8 Flip, on the other hand is a refreshed version of the Asus ZenFone 7 Pro and comes with a ‘flip’ rear camera module that acts as both the rear and front shooter for the smartphone. The Asus ZenFone 8 has been priced at $599 (roughly Rs 44,100) onwards, and the Asus ZenFone 8 Flip has been priced at EUR 799 (roughly Rs 71,000) onwards. Both the smartphones come with flagship-level specifications including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset. The Asus ZenFone 8 has a dual rear camera setup, while the ZenFone 8 Flip has a triple camera setup. The smartphone series was also set to launch in India on May 12, but in the light of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in the country, Asus deferred the launch of the ZenFone 8 in India.
Other Launches
Apart from the Oppo Find X3 Mars Exploration Edition, Redmi Note 10S, Asus ZenFone 8 series, the new PlayStation 5 controllers, and the MediaTek Dimensity 900 chipset, other launches this week included Intel’s latest 11th Gen Tiger Lake H-series processors, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30 mobile GPU, in computer peripherals. In terms of smartphones, we saw launches of the Realme C20A, Infinix Hot 10, Tecno Camon 17 Pro, and the Lava Z2 Max. Further we also saw several laptop launches like the Asus Zephyrus M16 and Zephyrus S17, new Dell XPS 15 and XPS 17, Lenovo Legion 5i, Legion 5i Pro, and Lenovo Legion 7i, and Vaio SE14 and SX14. In terms of accessories, we saw the Redmi Watch and Xiaomi Flipbuds Pro break cover, along with HTC Vive Pro 2 and Focus 3.
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TAGS:ASS ZENFONE 8 SERIES | DELL XPS 15 | DELL XPS 17 | DUALSENSE CONTROLLER | INFINIX HOT 10 | INTEL TIGER LAKE | MEDIATEK DIMENSITY 900 | PLAYSTATION 5 | REDMI NOTE 10S | REDMI WATCH | TECH LAUNCHES OF THE WEEK | TECH WRAP | WEEKLY WRAP
FIRST PUBLISHED: MAY 15, 2021, 16:56 IST
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