A single Bitcoin transaction creates the same amount of electronic waste (e-waste) as throwing two iPhones in the bin, according to a new analysis by economists from the Dutch central bank and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The new study points out that mining for Bitcoin generates a significant amount of e-waste that represents a growing threat to the environment. While the carbon footprint of Bitcoin is well studied, less attention has been paid to the vast churn in computer hardware that the cryptocurrency incentivizes.
A co-author of the report stated that the average life cycle of the powerful computers used to unearth the units of the world’s leading cryptocurrency was only 1.3 years.
“As a result, we estimate that the whole Bitcoin network currently cycles through 30.7 metric kilotons of equipment per year. This number is comparable to the amount of small IT and telecommunication equipment waste produced by a country like the Netherlands,” Mr. Alex de Vries and Mr. Christian Stoll, the authors of the research paper stated.
The race to find new Bitcoins, one unit was worth more than $47,000 following a stellar rise this year, means the mining computers’ processing power soon becomes obsolete. The more Bitcoin is worth, the larger the amount of electronic waste, according to the study published by the scientific journal, Elsevier.
According to the economists, in 2020 the Bitcoin network processed 112.5 million transactions which means that each individual transaction “equates to at least 272 grams of e-waste.”
Despite the high amount of waste, it remains a fraction of the global total from throwing away electronic devices, which stood at 53.6 million tonnes last year.
