Scientists have calculated the amount of energy that is needed for mining cryptocurrency and metals in the amount of $1. The research results are published in the scientific journal Nature Sustainability.
Thus, the mining of ethereum and litecoin is comparable in energy costs to the extraction of platinum: 7 MJ for the extraction of an asset worth $1. For bitcoin this figure is 17 MJ. But there is a metal, the extraction of which costs seven times more expensive. It is aluminum (122 MJ).