Re:Mozilla Foundation pausing cryptocurrency donations
by buildbuildbuild on Friday January 07, 2022 @12:08PM
(#29841639)
There is a lot of game theory behind why people mine a PoW cryptocurrency. Attempts to quantify “CO2 per transaction” are fundamentally flawed in my opinion.
Bitcoin’s pollution is not strongly correlated with its transaction volume.
It’s a famous rare collectible. People will mine it whether there is a high volume of transactions or not.
You would also have to factor in the pollution from e-waste generated by miners buying and replacing ASICs, although that's harder to quantify.
But we should also consider whether engaging in such a transaction is worthwhile as a matter of principle. If the organization's goals include environmentalism, does legitimizing Bitcoin by advertising their acceptance of it run counter to those goals?