Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index
There&#x27;s lots of misdirected anger these last few days towards Bitcoin.<p>First, the only thing that&#x27;s energy-intensive about Bitcoin is block production.  Making transactions, relaying them, validating them and storing them have negligible energy cost.<p>Second, nothing about the Bitcoin protocol requires block production to use fossil fuels.  Just like with <i>every other energy-intensive industry</i>, the problem isn&#x27;t the industry.  The problem is the fossil fuel use.<p>Therefore, if you want to get mad about the high energy use of block production leading to environmental pollution, you should direct that anger at the appropriate target: 
miners who use fossil fuels to mine.<p>How do we fix this?  The same way we fixed it in <i>every other energy-intensive industry</i>: through taxes and regulation.  Let&#x27;s get some laws passed to <i>require</i> miners in your area to use <i>only</i> renewable energy, and to <i>require</i> exchanges to impose a carbon tax on coins whose miners rely on fossil fuels to mine.  Properly applied, these laws would make fossil-fuel mining unprofitable, which is exactly what we want.<p>Bitcoin and PoW aren&#x27;t going anywhere at this point.  So let&#x27;s make sure it&#x27;s continued existence doesn&#x27;t make the world worse.  Sound good?