Prominent American television host Bill Maher recently took aim at the perceived wastefulness of cryptocurrency mining during the latest episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
“There’s the other big secret about crypto that nobody talks about…All the progress that we’re making with green energy is being sucked away by crypto,” he said.
Maher has noted that crypto uses 8% of total electricity. “Their data centers, their mining, this nonsense of finding a number. I can’t even go through the whole thing,” he stressed.
The US comedian has recalled that the impact of cryptocurrency mining is comparable to putting 15.7 million gas-powered cars on the road. “So, as we take them off to go to electric, crypto eats it all up, and it goes the other way,” Maher added.
Bitcoin’s energy use has always faced sharp criticism from environmental activists since mining equipment actually consumes more electricity than a lot of countries.
As reported by U.Today, the mining industry attracted some fresh pushback last month after it transpired that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) was paying local miners to curtail their operations. These companies were essentially early money by simply reducing pressure on the state’s power grid.
However, Bitcoin proponents argue that Bitcoin mining can be actually great for boosting renewable energy. Mining farms now predominantly rely on green power, setting new sustainability milestones.
Still, these arguments are unlikely to sway the general public, which sees cryptocurrency mining as harmful.
As for Maher, this is not the first time that the prominent television host has shown his aversion toward crypto. In 2022, he joked that investors buying real crypto would have been worse off than those who were unfortunate enough to buy fake tokens.