{"id":42726,"date":"2021-05-18T18:08:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T15:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=42726"},"modified":"2025-08-31T00:30:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T21:30:50","slug":"experts-say-bitcoin-is-more-environmentally-friendly-than-the-petrodollar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/experts-say-bitcoin-is-more-environmentally-friendly-than-the-petrodollar\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts say Bitcoin is more environmentally friendly than the petrodollar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The petrodollar, backed by the U.S. armed forces, threatens the environment more than mining the first cryptocurrency. This was stated by Alex Gladstein, the Human Rights Foundation&#8217;s Director of Strategy, and James McGinnis, co-founder of David Energy, on the Unchained podcast.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<figure class=\\\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\\\">\n<div class=\\\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\\\">\n<iframe loading=\\\"lazy\\\" title=\\\"Bitcoin vs. the Petrodollar: Which Is More Environmentally Friendly? - Ep.238\\\" width=\\\"500\\\" height=\\\"281\\\" src=\\\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SA_IhASl-S4?feature=oembed\\\" frameborder=\\\"0\\\" allow=\\\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\\\" referrerpolicy=\\\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\\\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>According to <a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/niallmccarthy\/2019\/06\/13\/report-the-u-s-military-emits-more-co2-than-many-industrialized-nations-infographic\/?sh=7c8c5b364372\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\\\"> Forbes<\/a>, in 2017 the U.S. military used up to 1 million barrels of oil per day. Had the Department of Defense been a country, such a level of consumption would place it 55th in the world by CO2 emissions.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Gladstein and James McGinnis described Bitcoin&#8217;s energy intensity as a feature that \u201ccreates security.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\\\">\n<p>\u201cFrom a technical standpoint, this is exactly what makes Bitcoin so fantastic,\u201d said McGinnis.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Alex Gladstein notes that there is a strong moral argument in favor of the first cryptocurrency:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\\\">\n<p>\u201cThere are 1.2 billion people living in inflation where the rates are two- and three-digit. There are 4.3 billion people living under authoritarianism. \u2026 Let those who say Bitcoin has no social value use the Sudanese pound for a year, and then tell me that Bitcoin&#8217;s value is exaggerated or nonexistent.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A representative of the Human Rights Foundation called digital gold a competitor to the world\u2019s reserve currency. In his view, the asset&#8217;s ultimate goal is to replace the petrodollar.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Tesla<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/tesla-halts-bitcoin-car-sales-and-roils-the-market\"> paused selling electric vehicles for Bitcoins<\/a> due to concerns about the environmental sustainability of mining. A similar view was voiced by Henrik Fisker, CEO of a competing company,<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/tesla-rival-rules-out-bitcoin-investment\"> excluding investments in cryptocurrency<\/a> and its support as a payment method.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Gladstein and James McGinnis suggested that Elon Musk&#8217;s decision is a reaction to \u201cbad PR\u201d from people who see the mining of digital assets as an environmental threat. In the experts&#8217; view, environmentalists should criticise the businessman and his company for supporting the US dollar, rather than for investing in the first cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2021, the Toronto Stock Exchange-listed <span data-descr=\\\"Bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund\\\" class=\\\"old_tooltip\\\">Bitcoin ETF<\/span> provider Ninepoint Partners announced plans<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/ninepoint-partners-to-allocate-portion-of-management-fees-to-reducing-carbon-footprint\"> to direct a portion of its management fees<\/a> toward reducing the carbon footprint.<\/p>\n<p>From June, the mining company Greenidge Generation will begin transferring funds to a portfolio<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/greenidge-generation-to-become-carbon-neutral\"> of greenhouse gas reduction projects<\/a>. The firm also plans to earmark part of its profits to building capacity for renewable energy generation facilities.<\/p>\n<p>As Galaxy Digital analysts noted, Bitcoin miners&#8217; annual energy costs amount to 113.89 TWh, lower than those for gold production and in the banking sector.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog news on <a href=\\\"https:\/\/vk.com\/forklogcom\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener\\\">VK<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The petrodollar, backed by the U.S. armed forces, threatens the environment more than mining the first cryptocurrency. This was stated by Alex Gladstein, the Human Rights Foundation&#8217;s Director of Strategy, and James McGinnis, co-founder of David Energy, on the Unchained podcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18,1137,1259],"class_list":["post-42726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bitcoin","tag-cryptocurrency-mining","tag-ecology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"18","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42728,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42726\/revisions\/42728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}