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Letter: One easy climate win: scrap cryptocurrencies

Published 19 July 2023

From Adam Kalinowski, Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK

Thank you for your timely, urgent and compelling leader on net zero, in which you conclude that we must cut emissions now and fast to avoid climate tragedy. Where better to start than with the cessation of the generation of cryptocurrency? The immediate end of mining cryptocurrency that relies on “proof of work”, and that uses a staggering amount of energy, equivalent to Sweden’s annual energy budget, would seem to be a good place to begin (Leader, 24 June). How did we ever let this go so far?

Issue no. 3448 published 22 July 2023

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