JESSICA RAWNSLEY
Categories: All Climate Protest + Activism Global Social Justice Data-driven Science + Tech
THE ECONOMIST
As the price of bitcoin has climbed, so has its environmental cost
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BITCOIN HAS gained many admirers since its launch in 2009. Once the domain of anarchists and Redditors, the digital currency has since piqued the interest of hedge-fund managers and tech entrepreneurs—most notably Elon Musk, the eccentric founder of Tesla and SpaceX. In February Tesla announced that it had invested $1.5bn in the cryptocurrency and would begin accepting the tokens as payment for its electric cars. Overnight, bitcoin’s price shot to a record-shattering $46,000. The total value of bitcoins in circulation, at more than $900bn, now exceeds Facebook’s market capitalisation.
