China’s recent measures against bitcoin are notable because they are, in part, motivated by environmental worries.
Before the recent crackdown, bitcoin mining in China was expected to generate more carbon emissions than countries such as the Philippines or the Czech Republic. Credit: Marko Ahtisaari via Creative Commons
Bitcoin advocates have long predicted the cryptocurrency’s rise would transform the world for the better. Twelve years on from its emergence, critics say the process of creating bitcoin is now doing quite the opposite — namely, endangering the world with its environmental impact.
The issue has come to a head in China, which is home to nearly two-thirds of the world’s bitcoin mining, according to data for last year from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. In recent weeks, China has become the first major nation to move against cryptocurrency miners, acting partly on concerns that the highly energy-intensive process stands at odds with the nation’s ambitious climate targets.
After China’s Vice Premier Liu He vowed to “crack down on bitcoin mining” in a speech in May, the northern province of Inner Mongolia — where about 8 percent of global bitcoin mining took place last year — followed suit with a raft of anti-mining policies, citing environmental
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