Bitcoin鈥檚 mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, dismissed early concerns about the potential for the cryptocurrency to consume large amounts of electricity and contribute to carbon dioxide emissions, according to newly released emails.
The true identity of the creator of bitcoin has never been revealed, but after the currency鈥檚 launch in January 2009, Nakamoto 鈥� a pseudonym 鈥� was active in online forums and email until late 2010, when they removed themselves from the project and dropped out of communication.
颁辞诲别谤听, who was a bitcoin developer from 2009 to 2011, interacted regularly with Nakamoto and has now released a trove of emails that shine light on the creation of the world鈥檚 first decentralised cryptocurrency. One key moment shows that the vast energy consumption and carbon emissions of the network seen today 鈥� it currently accounts for around 0.7 per cent of all electricity consumption worldwide 鈥� was anticipated, but considered a necessary evil.
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鈥淯nfortunately, proof of work is the only solution I鈥檝e found to make p2p [peer-to-peer] e-cash work without a trusted third party,鈥� writes Nakamoto in . 鈥淚f it did grow to consume significant energy, I think it would still be less wasteful than the labour and resource intensive conventional banking activity it would replace. The cost would be an order of magnitude less than the billions in banking fees that pay for all those brick and mortar buildings, skyscrapers and junk mail credit card offers.鈥�
But it is now known that there are alternatives. In 2022, another cryptocurrency, Ethereum, ditched the wasteful 鈥減roof-of-work鈥� system used by bitcoin altogether and replaced it with one called proof of stake where those who own currency control the network, rather than those who own and operate computing power. This slashed the network鈥檚 energy consumption overnight by more than 99.99 per cent. More than a year on, the experiment has proved successful and Ethereum remains secure, but bitcoin has shown no sign of following suit.
at the University of Oxford, who has been in the past but denies having any role in bitcoin;s creation, told New 杏吧原创 that he scoured the newly released emails for any revelations about the origin of currency. He says the environmental impact was clearly foreseen and may have been avoided if bitcoin鈥檚 creator had reacted differently.
鈥淚t鈥檚 inevitable in a way that if this succeeds, it鈥檚 going to have massive impacts on energy consumption and therefore CO2 emissions, and Nakamoto is very dismissive of that,鈥� says Lehdonvirta. 鈥淚f the environmental concerns had been taken more seriously in the beginning, they could have invented something like proof of stake earlier on.鈥�
at Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands says it is no surprise that bitcoin鈥檚 carbon emissions were considered and ignored in the early days of development, and points out that the late software developer (considered in some circles to be another likely candidate for Nakamoto) also .
鈥淎s far as I鈥檓 concerned, the community has always, visibly, been aware of the unsustainable nature of a large-scale proof-of-work application and just never bothered to address it,鈥� says de Vries. 鈥淭he mechanism is purposely wasteful and that has always been obvious to everyone involved.鈥�
at the London School of Economics believes that despite missed opportunities in the past to avoid bitcoin creating vast carbon emissions, there are still those who see the current situation as a necessary evil.
鈥淭his is a contentious issue, but the world uses a significant amount of energy to dig up gold and place it in vaults, or indeed to run cloud centres with massive power drain,鈥� says S酶rensen. 鈥淔or people who believe bitcoin is rat poison, it is a dreadful waste of energy. For people who think bitcoin is a valuable asset class, it may be worth it.鈥�
