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VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger says he believes Bitcoin is bad for humanity, citing its environmental impact and purported illicit use.
Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of major cloud computing and virtual machine company VMWare, has condemned Bitcoin (BTC) as being âbad for humanity.â
Fortune spoke to Gelsinger about Bitcoin prior to VMWareâs annual conference in San Francisco on Aug. 26. According to Gelsinger, one issue with Bitcoin is its purportedly high energy consumption, which contributes to climate change. Gelsinger said:
âIt takes the energy of a home, half-a-home a day, to do a single entry into a Bitcoin ledger [...] Itâs climate intolerant, it is so extreme, it is bad design.â
Gelsinger also claimed that people primarily use Bitcoin (BTC) for illicit activities, and that overall, it is "bad for humanity." Gelsinger reportedly remains neutral on blockchain technology itself, instead viewing Bitcoin as an unfortunate misuse of that tech.
Energy concerns around Bitcoin
Bitcoinâs electricity demands have been a concern for energy-conscious persons in the past. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, data consultant and blockchain specialist Alex De Vries has spoken about the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining. He said:
âWe know that mining is done with coal-electricity, but also with renewable energy. In the latter case, we donât know what we are displacing, plus renewable energy never has zero lifetime carbon footprint either. [...] The more energy Bitcoin uses, the more it will impact the environment for sure [...] Itâs not helping us reach our climate goals.â
In a recent study this June, cryptocurrency research firm CoinShares estimated that 74.1% of Bitcoin mining is powered by renewable energy.
Echoing Trump and the U.S. Treasury SecretaryÂ
Gelsingerâs remarks about Bitcoin being used for crime echo those made by United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in July. Mnuchin said he believes that âcryptocurrencies have been dominated by illicit activities and speculationâ and further stated:
âCryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity, like cybercrime, tax evasion, extortion, randomware, illicit drugs, human trafficking [âŠ] This is indeed a national security issue.â
As is his habit, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to criticize cryptocurrencies earlier this year by saying he was ânot a fanâ of cryptocurrencies. However, the industry responded positively to the tweet, and Bitcoinâs price was largely unaffected.
Disclaimer
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