GDF Global Summit: Sustainability in Crypto World

14 September, London — the Drofa Comms Agency team was lucky enough to attend the GDF Global Summit discussing how sustainable Bitcoin is and how it impacts climate change. “Opponents argue that Bitcoin is a climate disaster responsible for destroying decades of progress made on environmental issues. Proponents counter that Bitcoin mining is one of the most sustainable and greenest industries on the planet. Neither claim holds up when subjected to the test of evidence.”

The main verdict here is that there’s no verdict at all. As well as no certainty on the best next steps. It’s not as easy as “investing more in green initiatives” as we need to treat the disease, not the symptoms.

⬆️These are only few examples of sparkly different opinions. Should the truth lie somewhere in between? Unfortunately, the area is still underresearched so there’s no answer to that yet.

There are a number of green initiatives that we should pay attention to, like “Bitcoin ETF Pledges to Reduce Carbon Footprint by Planting Trees” or creating an actual Bitcoin Mining Council to report renewable energy usage.

What needs to be done? Quite a few things, actually. Researchers need to have more data and insights for their future work. Then, to raise the public discourse and eliminate misconceptions, people need to be educated on crypto and the mining process.

The bare existence of those misconceptions is quite natural as bitcoin is a relatively new technology. Throughout history, people have been wrong about many things when they first appeared. New = dangerous? Just like that many people used to be scared of electricity at first, but seem to deal with it just fine now.

Cryptocurrencies are now noisy teenagers trying to find their place in life. We, as parents, need to be patient and direct them, so that they don’t break our house down on their way.