Roger Wattenhofer on more energy-efficient cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoins are now also being used to pay taxes. The disadvantage: Bitcoins in particular require far too much energy. Prof. Roger Wattenhofer knows more environmentally conscious alternatives for this.
In Zug, citizens can pay their taxes with Bitcoins. What initially seems convenient and revolutionary also has its downsides: The high-performance computers required for Bitcoins consume more than twice the annual electricity consumption of Switzerland.
Prof. Roger Wattenhofer from the Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory sees the solution for this in alternative cryptocurrencies. These consume just as much energy as in the normal financial world and do not require mining. However, Prof. Roger Wattenhofer questions whether Bitcoin will switch to a more energy-efficient process.
Read the article with external pageRoger Wattenhofer on SRF for more information on Bitcoins.