Hass McCook on Bitcoin's energy use in context (EP.216)

Hass McCook is a civil engineer who has been delivering estimates of Bitcoin's energy use and CO2 emissions since 2014, as well as alternatives like gold or finance. In this episode:  Hass's background in civil engineering and how it prepared him for the energy debate The conflation between energy generation and electricity generation Why you can't just generalize energy consumption to carbon emissions Hass breaks down the varying carbon intensities of different sources of generation How much energy goes to waste globally The difference between CO2 and CO2e / greenhouse gases Why today's US grid has lowered its carbon intensity over the last decade Why combusting methane is a net good from an emissions perspective Hass' level of optimism around flared gas mining Why the changing rate of ASIC innovation affects bitcoin's energy consumption The opportunity for stranded gas at landfills Hass' estimates of the gold and the financial system's energy footprints How gold mining actually works The ecological and human cost of gold mining Hass' thoughts on offsets Sponsor notes: Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.