Bitcoin Transactions Consume Water Equivalent to Backyard Swimming Pools, Study Reveals

According to Yahoo News, every Bitcoin transaction uses, on average, enough water to fill a backyard swimming pool, a new study conducted by Alex de Vries of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam suggests. This figure is approximately six million times more than the water used in a typical credit card swipe. The high water consumption is attributed to the water needed to power and cool the millions of computers worldwide that Bitcoin relies on. As many regions face fresh water shortages, up to three billion people worldwide already experience water scarcity, a situation expected to worsen in the coming decades. In 2021, Bitcoin consumed nearly 1,600 billion liters of water, also known as gigaliters (GL), according to the study published in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability. The 2023 figure could surpass 2,200 GL. The primary reason for Bitcoin's high water usage is its reliance on massive amounts of computing power, which in turn requires significant amounts of electricity. Water is used to cool gas and coal-fired plants that provide much of our power, and large quantities of water are lost through evaporation from reservoirs supplying hydroelectric plants. Some water is also used to cool the millions of computers worldwide that process Bitcoin transactions. De Vries argues that Bitcoin does not need to use this much water, pointing to the power-hungry process known as 'Bitcoin mining.'