[sjeohp]

> You're literally killing the planet

This kind of hyperbole suggests you didn’t read the person’s comment very closely.

How is using X joules mining bitcoin worse than using it for anything else? Eg. mining gold?

If the energy grid was 100% sustainable would bitcoin still be “literally killing the planet”? Surely not, so maybe the problem is actually the energy source, not this particular use case.

[claudiawerner]

Indeed it might be still killing the planet, if all the renewable energy we can make at the moment were to be used for Bitcoin and so the other needs must use fossil fuels. At the very least, this argument leads to the conclusion that we ought to stop mining Bitcoin until all energy is renewable, but something tells me its advocates won't be happy with that.

[eeZah7Ux]

> How is using X joules mining bitcoin worse than using it for anything else? Eg. mining gold?

Or powering an MRI machine to detect cancer in a patient. Is it the same ethically?