Why does BTC increase demand for green energy but not other kinds of energy? Or does it increase demand for all types of energy available in the grids in which it's generated?
I would much rather that the demand for green energy increase due to a desire to transition away from other energy sources.
If the demand for energy is increasing and being met with green energy without removing the other sources of energy, that's not entirely a win in my book.
Both Google (and Bitcoin) are optimizing for lower electrical costs - wherever that may be. Often this is associated with grids with hydroelectric power. Places like https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/the-dalle...
The point isn't "this is how much CO2 google and bitcoin produce" but rather using the metric of CO2 footprint as a proxy for energy consumption to compare Bitcoin to Google to Facebook.
Whatever Bitcoin's CO2 footprint is, overall Bitcoin is consuming about 45x more power than Google over the course of a year.
We don’t know much about how its energy is being created. If 90% of Bitcoin’s energy use would be from renewables its CO2 footprint wouldn’t be 45x as large as that of Google.
There was a study a couple of years ago suggesting Bitcoin’s global footprint is comparable to that of a medium sized city. But its assumptions are probably outdated.
Edit: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S254243511...