Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have received a lot of negative attention in recent months and years for their absolutely staggering energy consumption. Bitcoin alone consumes approximately the same amount of energy the Netherlands thanks to the extremely energy-intensive “mining” process in which miners hook up computers--in some cases entire warehouses full of them--to solve complex computational puzzles to verify transactions (a process known as “proof of work”) in the public blockchain ledger on which the cryptocurrency system depends--a job for which they are rewarded with small amounts of Bitcoin. As such, ... (full story)