SBF's Carbon Emissions Math Classroom: How much carbon does Bitcoin emit, you can figure it out

It may be that too many people are criticizing Bitcoin for not being environmentally friendly. FTX founder SBF posted a mathematical article on Twitter, saying: "How much carbon dioxide (CO2) does Bitcoin produce? Should it be worried?" Before the deadline, SBF’s tweet was also publicly supported by the exchange BitMEX.

How much does non-renewable energy account for mining costs?

SBF said, suppose we spend X yuan in transaction fees on Bitcoin or Ethereum. (or other proof-of-work PoW cryptocurrencies). X will eventually go to the miners through on-chain bidding. In an efficient market, people will continue to participate as long as Bitcoin or Ethereum mining is profitable.

FTX founder SBF arrived at the New York court for arraignment in the FTX fraud case: Jinse Finance reported that FTX founder SBF arrived in a New York court for arraignment in the FTX fraud case. [2022/12/23 22:02:33]

So if people pay X dollars, then the miner's cost should be less than X. Therefore, SBF assumes:

Gas Fee is approximately equal to (mining cost*3/2)

SBF divides the mining cost into 1/2 electricity and 1/2 equipment, so 3/4 of the mining cost will be used to pay for electricity:

FTX founder SBF has signed a donation pledge on the donation pledge platform Giving Pledge: According to news on June 2, FTX founder SBF has signed a donation pledge on the donation pledge platform Giving Pledge, promising to use most of his wealth for charity.

It is reported that the Giving Pledge was established in 2010 by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Buffett to encourage the super rich to make larger donations. So far, the pledge has 230 signatories from 28 different countries, including Zuckerberg, Musk and others. (Coindesk) [2022/6/2 3:57:26]

Gas Fee = (mining cost * 1.5) = {(1/2 mining cost)+(1/2 mining cost。*3/2

FTX users found that they could not receive SMS verification codes, and SBF responded that the Twilio service was shut down: Jinse Finance reported that on December 22, some FTX users found that they could not receive SMS verification codes, so they could not perform two-factor authentication and complete transactions. FTX founder SBF responded on Twitter that the fault was caused by the fact that most of the services of Twilio, a phone tracking service provider, have now been shut down, and FTX will notify users of the update in a timely manner. In addition, SBF also complained that compared to Google Authenticator, SMS verification service is very bad. [2021/12/22 7:57:13]

Power expenditure = (1/2 mining cost)*3/2 = 3/4 mining cost

Then he said that 1/3 of the mines are operated by renewable energy, that is, 2/3 of the electricity will be used, and non-renewable energy will be used. Electricity costs about $0.05/kWh. Each kilowatt-hour (kWh) produces 0.0004 tons of carbon dioxide.

How bad is CO2?

According to SBF, according to Cool Earth calculations, about 1 US dollar can reduce 1 ton of carbon emissions.

Settlement: Balanced mining carbon emissions only need low cost

SBF finally deduced his calculations, Gas Fee spent X yuan, 2/3 will be spent on mining costs, 3/4 will be spent on electricity, of which 2/3 is non-renewable energy, the cost is about 0.05 US dollars/kWh, Each kWh produces 0.0004 tons of CO2 and costs $1 per ton to reduce carbon emissions.

2/3 * 3/4 * (2/3) / 0.05 * 0.0004 * 1 = 0.0026

SBF said that this result tells us that if you spend 1 dollar on the handling fee, you only need to donate $0.0026 to Cool Earth to solve the carbon emission problem. He also marked Tesla founder Musk, who criticized Bitcoin for causing carbon emissions.

The author of this article: Chain News

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