And what does that have to do with bitcoin mining exactly? It might appear that bitcoin mining is far costlier, but is mining gold safer and friendlier to the environment? I don't think so. There had been many deaths and environmental degradation linked to mining gold than mining bitcoin, and it's just not about the cost to mine that matters IMO.


Greenhouse gases emissions are have been around ever since the first Industrial Revolution started, and it's not as if bitcoin mining would be the sole contributor to these emissions. There are tons of industries that emit more harmful chemicals and gases in the air than ASICs using electricity to mine bitcoins and giving off heat. Instead of focusing on lowering the amount of electricity an industry uses, why not focus on generating cleaner energy that's sustainable for the future?

One thing that they clearly haven't taken into account, is the fact that gold mining causes environmental damage on many other levels as well.
You shouldn't just look at carbon emissions, but also at other forms of pollution caused by gold mining.

In most of the western world, there are pretty strict regulations on how you can mine for gold, but that isn't the case in most of the third world.
There they still use mercury to recover gold, which heavily pollutes the soil.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5129257/ (Heavy Metal Pollution from Gold Mines: Environmental Effects and Bacterial Strategies for Resistance)

Carbon emissions due to high power consumption is something that should be tackled from the root of the problem. Switch over to greener forms of energy production.
IMO we should really have another look at nuclear energy, since it's currently the most cost effective, safest and cleanest form of energy available.

Sources: https://www.zdnet.com/article/nuclear-less-co2-than-solar-hydro-biomass/
https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/publications/magazines/bulletin/bull21-1/21104091117.pdf (Is Solar Power More Dangerous Than Nuclear?)

if you zoom in bitcoin price chart so much that you are seeing seconds, it can seem like price is shooting up whereas it really is stable!
I say this example because I wanted to say that this comparison is flawed because that is similar to zooming in and not seeing the bigger picture.

the question is not how much it costs to mine $1 worth of gold. the question is how much energy is used to mine gold! lets do a quick calculation.
last year 2500 ton of gold was mined. that is 219,178 ounce per day or 269,786,301 dollar per day. so you are not mining $1 gold per day to spend energy for $1. you are spending energy for $270 million gold per day.
how much bitcoin is being mined per day? that is about $11 million or in other words there is the gold being mined is 24x more and based on that chart it is equal to 6.5 times more energy

As you know, gold is in risk of running  out of . It is difficult for us to mine gold because we should have modern system , and labor can be in danger if they want to get it.

I don't think this is a problem. Just bitcoin mining will continue to engage those to whom it will be cost effective. If you use solar panels or modern windmills, that is, renewable energy sources, the high energy costs will not be a problem and at the cost of production, gold mining will again be much more expensive than mining Bitcoin.

If you'll do illegal mining, ofcourse yes it's gonna cost you less than bitcoin mining but if you'll do a legal gold mining and follow all the rules and regulation and apply to respective government agencies and follow safety hush hush then believe me you will absolutely know why gold is very expensive. I know coz I do researched on Gold mining here in the Philippines .
As for Bitcoin mining, well I think it depend on what country you're in and cost of electricity on that country and ofcourse there's already solar energy so you have option.

There is some truth to all of this though. We need to combat pollution and reduce energy usage wherever possible. Energy efficiency is the top priority here.

- The factories around the world(Especially 3rd world countries) need to utilize energy efficient methods and a law needs to be imposed in this aspect.
- All current gen ASIC miners need to be replaced with energy efficient ASICs in the future etc.

Do you really believe that? There are so many fake news out there that we need to start by thinking a bit just before believing it...
How could mining gold have less cost than mining bitcoin?
Gold can be mined in several ways, and on the easiest, they dig massive holes, and wash all the dirt to separate it from gold... if we take into account the landscaping, fuel and electrical consumption, massive machinery, manpower, etc.... is it possible that this is less expensive than setting up a few ASICs?
And how about the blasts? or the places where gold is embedded in other rocks and they use deadly chemicals to extract it (mercury if I am not mistaken) - ending up in water flows?
Which methods and examples are being used to consider the 1$ gold production cost?

So, let's say that these guys are only speaking about energy cost, and I will say only 3 things:
- energy cost to produce $1 worth of BTC - is this considering prices in December 2017, or August 2018, or when?
- how may large mining facilities run on renewable energy? how many small mining facilities run on renewable energy? I don't have the direct answer to this, but checking the renewable energy developments in some countries and the constinued rise of hashrates, we can get some clues...
- energy cost on gold extraction is by far the lesser problem... and on BTC is the ONLY problem

So, how many gold mining facilities, or production plants run on renewable energy?

Time to get one of those Australian metal detectors... you know, the ones that can distinguish between gold and other materials 8 feet into the ground... and start checking out the old gold mines in the world.

Why do this? To get enough gold to buy more Bitcoin, of course.

And yet people still mine Bitcoin, because it's fairly easy to setup an operation once you have a place with cheap electricity - compared to precious metals, when you have first to find the deposits, then get permits, pay the fees, rent equipment and so on.

Also, this relative inefficiency is a good thing, because it forces miners to improve their energy efficiency, by finding places with excess electricity. Bitcoin mining is a great candidate for making renewable source like wind and solar more economically attractive by using their surplus electricity.