Hass McCook on Bitcoin's energy use in context (EP.216)

Published: May 24, 2021, 10 a.m.

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Hass McCook is a civil engineer who has been delivering estimates of Bitcoin\'s energy use and CO2 emissions since 2014, as well as alternatives like gold or finance. In this episode:\\xa0

  • Hass\'s background in civil engineering and how it prepared him for the energy debate
  • The conflation between energy generation and electricity generation
  • Why you can\'t just generalize energy consumption to carbon emissions
  • Hass breaks down the varying carbon intensities of different sources of generation
  • How much energy goes to waste globally
  • The difference between CO2 and CO2e / greenhouse gases
  • Why today\'s US grid has lowered its carbon intensity over the last decade
  • Why combusting methane is a net good from an emissions perspective
  • Hass\' level of optimism around flared gas mining
  • Why the changing rate of ASIC innovation affects bitcoin\'s energy consumption
  • The opportunity for stranded gas at landfills
  • Hass\' estimates of the gold and the financial system\'s energy footprints
  • How gold mining actually works
  • The ecological and human cost of gold mining
  • Hass\' thoughts on offsets

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