‘Mining’ cryptocurrencies pollutes the real world (2024)

aluminum: A metallic element, the third most abundant in Earth’s crust. It is light and soft, and used in many items from bicycles to spacecraft.

bitcoin: A type of digital currency, also known as cryptocurrency, created in January 2009. It works a bit like a dollar or euro, except that it’s value is not controlled by a central bank or regulated by some government’s agency (such as the U.S. Treasury). Its value can vary widely. And the currency can only be used for purchases that occur online. Each bitcoin transaction is securely recorded in a public ledger known as a blockchain.

climate: The weather conditions that typically exist in one area, in general, or over a long period.

code: (in computing) To use special language to write or revise a program that makes a computer do something. (n.) Code also refers to each of the particular parts of that programming that instructs a computer's operations.

computer chip: (also integrated circuit) The computer component that processes and stores information.

conservation: The act of preserving or protecting something. The focus of this work can range from art objects to endangered species and other aspects of the natural environment.

copper: A metallic chemical element in the same family as silver and gold. Because it is a good conductor of electricity, it is widely used in electronic devices.

data center: A facility that holds computing hardware, such as servers, routers, switches and firewalls. It also will house equipment to support that hardware, including air conditioning and backup power supplies. Such a center ranges in size from part of a room to one or more dedicated buildings. These centers can house what it takes to make a “cloud” that makes possible cloud computing.

focus: (in behavior) To look or concentrate intently on some particular point or thing.

fossil fuel: Any fuel — such as coal, petroleum (crude oil) or natural gas — that has developed within the Earth over millions of years from the decayed remains of bacteria, plants or animals.

greenhouse gases: Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing heat. Carbon dioxide and methane are twoexamples of suchgases.

grid: (in electricity) The interconnected system of electricity lines that transport electrical power over long distances. In North America, this grid connects electrical generating stations and local communities throughout most of the continent.

groundwater: Water that is held underground in the soil or in pores and crevices in rock.

iron: A metallic element that is common within minerals inEarth’s crust and in its hot core. This metal also is found in cosmic dustand in many meteorites.

kilowatt-hour: Abbreviated kWh, it’s a measure of energy use. It’s equal to the use of 1 kilowatt (kW) — or 1,000-watts — of electrical energy continuously over the course of an hour. This is the amount of energy needed to power a 1,000-watt microwave oven for 1 hour. A typical U.S. household uses roughly 900 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month.

landfill: A site where trash is dumped and then covered with dirt to reduce smells. If they are not lined with impermeable materials, rains washing through these waste sites can leach out toxic materials and carry them downstream or into groundwater. Because trash in these facilities is covered by dirt, the wastes do not get ready access to sunlight and microbes to aid in their breakdown. As a result, even newspaper sent to a landfill may resist breakdown for many decades.

leach: (in geology and chemistry) The process by which water (often in the form of rain) removes soluble minerals or other chemicals from a solid, such as rock, or from sand, soil, bones, trash or ash.

model: A simulation of a real-world event (usually using a computer) that has been developed to predict one or more likely outcomes.Or an individual that is meant to display how something would work in or look on others.

network: A group of interconnected people or things. (v.) The act of connecting with other people who work in a given area or do similar thing (such as artists, business leaders or medical-support groups), often by going to gatherings where such people would be expected, and then chatting them up. (n. networking)

New Zealand: An island nation in the southwest Pacific Ocean, roughly 1,500 kilometers (some 900 miles) east of Australia. Its “mainland” — consisting of a North and South Island — is quite volcanically active. In addition, the country includes many far smaller offshore islands.

online: (n.) On the internet. (adj.) A term for what can be found or accessed on the internet.

pollutant: A substance that taints something — such as the air, water, our bodies or products. Some pollutants are chemicals, such as pesticides. Others may be radiation, including excess heat or light. Even weeds and other invasive species can be considered a type of biological pollution.

reward: (In animal behavior) A stimulus, such as a tasty food pellet, that is offered to an animal or person to get them to change their behavior or to learn a task.

risk: The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard — or peril — itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)

silicon: A nonmetal, semiconducting element used in making electronic circuits. Pure silicon exists in a shiny, dark-gray crystalline form and as a shapeless powder.

social science: A research field that deals with human society, with organizations and institutions that people join or work for, and with relationships between individuals and those organizations. Economics and political science are subsets of social science that deal with how groups of people organize and make important decisions for the good of society. People who work in all of these fields are known as social scientists.

system: A network of parts that together work to achieve some function. For instance, the blood, vessels and heart are primary components of the human body's circulatory system. Similarly, trains, platforms, tracks, roadway signals and overpasses are among the potential components of a nation's railway system. System can even be applied to the processes or ideas that are part of some method or ordered set of procedures for getting a task done.

terawatt-hour: Abbreviated TWh, it’s a measure of energy use. It’s equal to the use of 1 terawatt (TW) — 1 trillion watts — of electrical energy continuously over the course of an hour. A TWh of electricity is greater than the combined monthly power consumption of more than a million typical U.S. households.

toxic: Poisonous or able to harm or kill cells, tissues or whole organisms. The measure of risk posed by such a poison is its toxicity.

virtual: Being almost like something. An object or concept that is virtually real would be almost true or real — but not quite. The term often is used to refer to something that has been modeled — by or accomplished by — a computer using numbers, not by using real-world parts. So a virtual motor would be one that could be seen on a computer screen and tested by computer programming (but it wouldn’t be a three-dimensional device made from metal). (in computing) Things that are performed in or through digital processing and/or the internet. For instance, a virtual conference may be where people attended by watching it over the internet.

waste: Any materials that are left over from biological or other systems that have no value, so they can be disposed of as trash or recycled for some new use.