The current collapse of cryptocurrencies has had far-reaching effects on the tech market and has even had a significantly positive impact on the environment.
According to data reported by Digiconomist, the accident reduced carbon emissions by a significant amount: 150,000 metric tons of CO2 per day are avoided due to reduced crypto mining.
As Digiconomist stated, "total reductions in recent weeks already account for a quarter of annual CO2 reductions from Tesla vehicles." We will see how much emissions will drop as the market continues to fall.
The collapse of cryptocurrencies (so far) is having a lasting impact on associated carbon emissions. 150.000 tons of CO2 are avoided each day compared to before the accident. The total reductions of the last weeks already represent a quarter of the annual CO2 reductions of Tesla vehicles. pic.twitter.com/BPiTu1d8WPJune 30, 2022
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For context, this amount of avoided carbon emissions, according to Digiconomist analysis, is greater than the entire global net savings produced by the deployment of e-vehicles, which the International Energy Agency (opens in a new tab) estimates to be around 50 Mt in 2020.
Of course, this is just to avoid carbon emissions, which means that it is the carbon emissions that we are not actively adding to our total emissions output, the non-existing shows that we cancel.
Analysis: The Dramatic Effects of Cryptocurrency Mining
Seeing how much carbon emissions have fallen after the cryptocurrency crash is sobering, to say the least. The crypto industry has left a lasting negative impact on the world.
The extensive damage of cryptomining on the environment is a well-documented fact, with various studies reporting the incredibly large amount of carbon emissions it releases due to the high energy consumption of mining via electronic devices.
ASIC-based mining devices also produce significant electronic waste, as their lifespan is three to five years on average before they need to be replaced, and the used equipment cannot be reused for other uses by its nature.
Another form of mining equipment comes in the form of GPUs, and miners are very much looking for the best graphics cards, as we can see, Ethereum miners alone spent €15 billion on graphics cards in the last two years. Even the best cheap graphics cards from a few generations ago became almost impossible to buy during the cryptocurrency boom.
Many of these cards are now flooding the used market as miners try to recoup their losses, with no way of knowing what their remaining lifespan might be or the conditions in which they operated. So there's really no way of knowing if these used cards are a good buy unless the miners are literally giving them away.