Every Bitcoin transaction uses, on average, enough water to fill “a backyard swimming pool”, a new study suggests. That’s around six million times more than is used in a typical credit card swipe, Alex de Vries of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, calculates. The figure is due to the water used to power and cool the millions of computers worldwide Bitcoin relies on. It comes as many regions struggle with fresh water shortages. Up to three billion people worldwide already experience water shortages, a situation which is expected to worsen in the coming decades, the study notes. “This is happening in Central Asia, but it’s also happening in the US, especially around California. And that’s only going to get worse as climate change gets worse,” Mr de Vries told the BBC. In total, bitcoin consumed nearly 1,600 billion litres – also known as gigalitres (GL) – of water in 2021, the study, published in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability, suggests. It says the 2023 figure could be more than 2,200 GL. The main reason Bitcoin uses so much water is because it relies on an enormous amount of computing power, which in turn needs huge amounts of electricity. Bitcoin is so power hungry it uses only marginally less electricity than the entire country of Poland, according to figures from Cambridge University. Water is used to cool the gas and coal-fired plants that provide that much of our power. And large amounts of water are lost through evaporation from the reservoirs that supply hydroelectric plants. Some water is also used to cool the millions of computers around the world on which Bitcoin transactions rely. Mr de Vries argues that Bitcoin does not need to use this much water – singling out the power hungry process at its heart, which is known as “Bitcoin mining.”
Full research : Every Bitcoin payment ‘uses a swimming pool of water.’
