比特币挖矿对气候和环境来说都是坏消息

自从 2009 年一位匿名计算机程序员推出开源比特币软件以来，这项新技术很快就引起了金融界的关注，因为它是一种快速、简单的创收方式，不受印钞等政府监管。

Since its introduction in 2009 by an nameless pc programmer, open supply bitcoin software program has rapidly drawn the eye of the monetary sector as a fast and simple option to generate income not topic to governmental regulation like print cash.

自从 2009 年由一位不知名的电脑程序员推出以来，开源比特币软件迅速吸引了金融界的目光，因为它是一种快速而简单的创收方式，不受印钞等政府监管的影响。

On the outset, the hidden environmental prices of bitcoin had been unrecognized. Current analysis and investigations by governments, worldwide organizations, nonprofits, and students are revealing the key environmental impacts of bitcoin mining.

一开始，比特币隐藏的环境价格并未被认识到。各国政府、全球组织、非营利组织和学生目前的分析和调查揭示了比特币挖矿对环境的主要影响。

Right here we’ll unpack how bitcoin mining spells nothing however unhealthy information for each the local weather and the setting.

在这里，我们将解开比特币挖矿如何解释当地天气和环境的不健康信息。

What’s bitcoin?

什么是比特币？

Bitcoin is the most well-liked and world’s largest cryptocurrency, an solely digital cash that exchanges independently of a central financial institution, so it’s not susceptible to inflation like print cash is. Since its beginnings, bitcoin has been probably the most extremely valued and extensively tracked of all types of cryptocurrency by a blockchain ledger system. The ledger is decentralized and public, making all transactions—which stay nameless—verifiable by customers.

比特币是最受欢迎、世界上最大的加密货币，是一种独立于中央金融机构进行交易的纯数字现金，因此它不像纸币那样容易受到通货膨胀的影响。自诞生以来，比特币可能是所有类型的加密货币中最有价值且被区块链分类账系统广泛追踪的。账本是去中心化和公开的，使得所有匿名交易都可以由客户验证。

Thus far, few retailers settle for bitcoin—or any cryptocurrency for that matter—as cost for items or providers. Bitcoin is principally utilized by speculators to show a revenue by shopping for and promoting, very like shares in an organization. The cryptocurrency market is very unstable and there are charges and taxes related to money conversions.

到目前为止，很少有零售商接受比特币或任何与此相关的加密货币作为商品或供应商的成本。比特币主要被投机者用来通过购买和销售来显示收入，就像公司的股票一样。加密货币市场非常不稳定，并且存在与货币兑换相关的费用和税收。

What’s bitcoin mining?

什么是比特币挖矿？

Bitcoin comes into existence by mining completed by computer systems (known as miners) performing refined calculations. They might run by trillions of calculations per second, making an attempt to match the chosen quantity chosen by the bitcoin community’s algorithm.

比特币是通过计算机系统（称为“矿工”）执行精细计算完成的挖矿而产生的。它们可能每秒运行数万亿次计算，试图匹配比特币社区算法选择的数量。

The primary miner to guess that quantity appropriately wins bitcoins—which can be price lots of of hundreds of {dollars}—as a reward. After the win, which happens in minutes, the sport begins once more with a newly chosen quantity to match.

猜出该数量的主要矿工将赢得比特币（价格可能高达数百美元）作为奖励。几分钟内获胜后，游戏将再次开始，并以新选择的数量进行匹配。

With bitcoin mining, there isn’t any bodily extraction concerned like there’s for minerals similar to lithium or cobalt which are literally dug out and faraway from the Earth.

在比特币开采中，不存在任何像锂或钴之类的矿物那样的物理开采问题，这些矿物实际上是在远离地球的地方挖出来的。

What are the environmental impacts of bitcoin mining?

比特币挖矿对环境有哪些影响？

Though carbon emissions fueling the local weather disaster are probably the most continuously cited environmental affect of bitcoin mining, land and water use are additionally vital for what critics check with as a profit-centered pastime answerable for a frivolous waste of assets. A current United Nations report detailed the worldwide environmental impacts of bitcoin mining.

尽管碳排放加剧了当地的天气灾难，这可能是比特币挖矿最常被提及的环境影响，但批评者认为，比特币挖矿是一种以利润为中心的消遣，是一种无意义的资产浪费，因此土地和水的使用也至关重要。最近的一份联合国报告详细介绍了比特币开采对全球环境的影响。

It’s additionally price noting that fossil gas burning contributes to air air pollution, answerable for roughly 8.1 million untimely deaths yearly.

值得注意的是，化石燃料燃烧会造成空气污染，每年导致约 810 万人过早死亡。

Carbon impacts of bitcoin mining

比特币挖矿的碳影响

To function, bitcoin mining consumes large portions of electrical energy. In a 2023 investigative report by the New York Times, as much as 96% of that electrical energy is produced by burning fossil fuels. By way of carbon air pollution, that’s equal to three.5 million gas-powered automobiles, in accordance with the tech nonprofit WattTime.

为了发挥作用，比特币挖矿消耗大量电能。 《纽约时报》2023 年的一份调查报告显示，多达 96% 的电能是通过燃烧化石燃料产生的。根据科技非营利组织 WattTime 的数据，空气污染相当于 350 万辆汽油动力汽车的碳排放量。

Primarily based on their evaluation of 34 massive bitcoin mines within the US, the Occasions calculated that every one makes use of not less than 30,000 instances as a lot energy as the typical residence in America. Seen collectively, that’s equal to roughly 3,900 megawatts of electrical energy, the identical as that utilized by three million houses or all residences in New York Metropolis.

《Occasions》主要根据对美国 34 个大型比特币矿场的评估，计算出每个矿场消耗的能源不少于美国普通住宅的 30,000 倍。总的来说，这大约相当于 3,900 兆瓦的电能，相当于纽约市 300 万栋房屋或所有住宅的用电量。

To make issues worse, the Occasions report discovered that bitcoin mines manipulate the US energy market and make hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in earnings whereas doing so. They’ve found out easy methods to keep away from peak-demand utility charges, resell their electrical energy at a excessive value (upwards of 100 instances what they paid) when costs spike in a black- or brownout, and be paid for contracting to show off utilization although they hardly ever do.

更糟糕的是，《Occasions》报告发现，比特币矿场操纵美国能源市场，并在此过程中赚取数十万美元的收入。他们找到了简单的方法来避开高峰需求的公用事业费用，在停电或停电时成本飙升时以高价（高达其支付价格的 100 倍）转售电能，并通过签订合同获得报酬。炫耀利用率，尽管他们很少这样做。

Though many neighbors—as much as a half mile away—complain of the fixed noise air pollution attributable to big followers wanted to chill the computer systems, some states welcome bitcoin mines. They assist the financial system, particularly if fossil fuels are already current. In North Dakota, for instance, Josh Teigen, the commerce commissioner, commented: “They’re propping up our fossil gas business, and that’s precisely what we wish.”

尽管许多邻居——远在半英里外——抱怨大追随者想要冷却计算机系统造成的固定噪音空气污染，但一些州欢迎比特币矿场。它们有助于金融体系，特别是在化石燃料已经存在的情况下。例如，在北达科他州，商务专员乔什·泰根 (Josh Teigen) 评论道：“他们正在支撑我们的化石天然气业务，而这正是我们所希望的。”

Bitcoin mining may consequence within the reopening of fossil gas crops, a lot to the chagrin of native residents. In upstate New York, as an illustration, a gas-powered plant reopened primarily to energy a bitcoin mine.

比特币开采可能会导致化石天然气作物的重新开放，这让当地居民非常懊恼。例如，在纽约州北部，一家天然气发电厂重新开业，主要为比特币矿场提供能源。

A couple of bitcoin mines are operated by homeowners of native fossil gas crops, together with two burning waste coal in Pennsylvania.

几个比特币矿场是由当地化石天然气作物的业主经营的，其中包括宾夕法尼亚州的两个燃烧废煤的矿场。

In keeping with the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Index (CBEI) which tracks electrical energy use and greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions from bitcoin mining, if bitcoin had been a rustic, it will rank because the twenty fifth highest consumer of electrical energy and sixty fifth for greenhouse fuel emissions.

根据跟踪比特币挖矿的电能使用和温室气体（GHG）排放的剑桥比特币电力指数（CBEI），如果比特币是一个乡村，它将排名第 25 位，在电力消耗方面排名第 65 位。温室燃料排放。

The CBEI estimates that bitcoin mining produces 81.2 MtCO2eq (megatons of carbon dioxide equivalents)

CBEI 估计比特币挖矿产生 81.2 MtCO2eq（百万吨二氧化碳当量）