Os impactos ambientais da mineração de criptomoedas: desafios, expectativas e caminhos sustentáveis

Abstract

This monograph aimed to problematize aspects relating to the environmental impacts caused by cryptomining, aiming to understand the consequences and challenges caused by this productive action, expanding the range of theoretical scripts that address this topic that is little debated within the academic sphere. The selection for the development of this bibliographic study resulted from journalistic articles about reports from people affected by degradation, scientific articles from the same economic scope and quantitative study instruments regarding the energy consumption of digital currencies. With this in mind, it appears that cryptocurrencies are decentralized, that is, there is no presence of state bodies in their control and issuance processes, as they are governed by cryptography, in a system known as blockchain. Furthermore, their exchange, purchase and sale takes place on markets known as exchanges. However, it is possible to acquire cryptocurrencies that are stored and not yet in circulation on the market through mining, a process that requires a large amount of energy through the use of supercomputers, causing negative impacts on the environment. Given this fact, sustainable measures are crucial for the degradation caused by this activity to be mitigated, and thus, the issue of using clean and renewable energy sources, capable of making the activity less impactful on nature, comes into focus.