the staggering cost of cryptomining isn't just an expensive graphics card
Analysis: the staggering cost of cryptomining isn't just an expensive graphics card In addition to the outrageous prices being charged online for graphics cards like the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 – even among legitimate retailers – there is a much greater cost to the cryptomining craze of the past few years. Despite what cryptocurrency advocates claim, actual scientists who study the effects of cryptomining on the environment are pretty much in agreement that it's an ecological disaster. Cryptomining, globally, requires 110,000,000,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, while all of the solar panels in the United States produced only 90,000,000,000 kilowatt-hours in 2020. You can say that this energy diversion is well spent if you believe cryptocurrencies have utility beyond holding critical national infrastructure hostage for ransom, buying drugs online, or money laundering, but it is energy diversion. It might not be as explicit as in this case in Mal