By now, you've probably heard the environmentalist knock on bitcoin, including apocalyptic claims that it will use up all of the world's energy and will single-handedly increase global temperatures until the planet is uninhabitable.
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"Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are terrible for the environment," declares Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). "It's an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions," pronounces former Federal Reserve Chair and current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. "It's a way to both hide dirty money and destroy the environment at the same time," says Daily Show host Trevor Noah.
Such environmentalist attacks on bitcoin are best understood as a strategy by economic, media, and political elites to undermine a powerful new form of money that they can't control. Critics distort the basic facts about what's known as bitcoin "mining," the process through which a global network of computers maintain the bitcoin network through computation. Though energy intensive, this process is what makes bitcoin a truly decentralized monetary system.
Photo Credits: Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash; Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash; Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash; Imagine China/Newscom; Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash; Imagine China/Newscom; Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash; Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/Si/Newscom; Matt McClain/Pool Xinhua News Agency/Newscom; Camilo Freedman/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Photo by Blake Wheeler on Unsplash; MING DE/FEATURECHINA/Newscom; Camilo Freedman/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Rodrigo Sura/EFE/Newscom; Kyodo/Newscom; MING DE/FEATURECHINA/Newscom; Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash; Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye; joe sohm/Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group/Newscom; Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye; Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Newscom; Photo by Raisa Milova on Unsplash; Photo by Sava Bobov on Unsplash; Yuri Smityuk/TASS/Newscom; Monty Rakusen/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Mirko Tobias Schäfer, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Federalreserve, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Ron Adar/M10s/MEGA/Newscom; Beata Zawrzel/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Ingram Publishing/Newscom; Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash; BugWarp, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; Beata Zawrzel/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Kyodo/Newscom; Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/Si/Newscom; Beata Zawrzel/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Budrul Chukrut/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/Si/Newscom; Camilo Freedman/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; RAFAEL BEN ARI/Rafael Ben Ari/Newscom; imageBROKER/Markus Mainka/Newscoms; Federalreserve, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Human Rights Foundatuon; Niccarter.info; Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/Si/Newscom; Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Terry Ballard from Merrick, New York, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Music credits: Vuelta al Sol, by Tomas Novoa via Artlist.io; "Lyke the Robot," by Out of Flux via Artlist.io
Footage Credit: Jim Epstein and Noor Greene
Produced by Regan Taylor; graphics by Isaac Reese; audio post-production by Ian Keyser
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