Bitcoin donations banned by Greenpeace amid environmental concerns
The environmental charity said it will be suspending a facility allowing its supporters to donate using the cryptocurrency amid growing awareness of the amount of energy used in its mining process
Environmental activist group Greenpeace has stopped accepting donations in Bitcoin amid growing concerns about the impact of mining the cryptocurrency on global carbon emissions.
In an FT report on Thursday, the group said it will be scrapping a facility that allows it to accept donations in Bitcoin, saying that while it had not been heavily used the environmental impact of the digital coin and its energy use made accepting the crypto untenable.
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Another environmental charity, Friends of the Earth, was also reported to be considering the issue going forward.
The energy used in Bitcoin mining, which consumes around the same power annually as Sweden, hit the headlines earlier this month when () boss Elon Musk said the company would be suspending its acceptance of Bitcoin as a payment method amid concerns over its environmental impact.
Tesla’s move, alongside other regulatory concerns, led to a crash in the value of the crypto markets earlier this week as the market value dropped by around 25% before partially rebounding on Thursday.
With Tesla saying it is “looking at other cryptocurrencies” that use much less than Bitcoin’s energy per transaction, already growing interest in less energy-intensive coins has accelerated.
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