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Intel CEO Calls Bitcoin a ‘Climate Crisis’

Intel CEO Calls Bitcoin a ‘Climate Crisis’

Patrick Gelsinger, Intel CEO, has been criticized Bitcoin ‘s impact on the climate during a recent interview with Bloomberg

During the interview, he said that one Bitcoin ledger entry can consume enough energy to power your home for almost a whole day. “That’s climate crisis.” 

It is well-documented that Bitcoin has an impact on the environment. 

According to Cambridge UniversityThe Bitcoin network currently consumes an estimated 125,000 terawatt-hours per year. This is more electricity than most countries in the world, such as Norway, the United Arab Emirates and Sweden. 

The amount of electricity that Bitcoin consumes in terawatt-hours. Source: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Indicator (CBECI).

Previous research By DecryptIt was also found that Bitcoin’s larger carbon footprint was roughly equivalent to more than 60 billion pounds of coal, 9,000,000 homes’ average electricity consumption for a year, and over 100 billion miles driven per passenger vehicle. 

During the interview the CEO also used the opportunity to promote his company’s own mining chip. Gelsinger described it as one that will “solve the climate problem” outlined above. 

Intel’s venture into crypto mining

Gelsinger claimed that Intel was soon to release a new mining chip, which would be less harmful for the environment. 

Raja M. Koduri (Senior Vice President Intel), Last week, this chip was praised for its “over 1000x better performance per watt” than mainstream GPUs for SHA256-based mining.

Intel is also To be expectedThis year’s International State Circuits Conference will provide more information about the energy-efficient chip. 

Gelsinger’s comments regarding Bitcoin’s climate impacts may seem anti-crypto, but he is still optimistic about the sector’s underlying technological potential. 

“We’re going on to fix this because this technology is powerful, an immutable leverageable digitalized entry system that can transform currency, transactions and supply chains, so yeah. This one’s exciting,” stated the CEO.

https://decrypt.co/93110/intel-ceo-calls-bitcoin-climate-crisis

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