It is no secret that bitcoin mining comes with an environmental cost, but the extent of that cost has recently been laid bare. According to research by Elite Fixtures, when Bitcoin was at its peak at $69000, its mining used around 180 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity annually. It’s equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of all the data centers combined. That’s one giant energy footprint — and it’s one that we’re only going to see getting bigger in the years ahead.

All About Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that doesn’t need to be physically minted. A centralized bank does not control it; instead, each transaction is verified by computers, or miners, all over the world. The currency was launched in 2009 as open-source software by Satoshi Nakamoto (an anonymous name) and has no real value other than its use as payment.

The Environmental Cost

Bitcoin has dramatically risen in value over 2017, but at a cost to our environment. With each bitcoin now worth nearly $24,000 – almost 40 times its value just one year ago – there is increased scrutiny into how cryptocurrency mining impacts power grids worldwide. Bitcoins are created through “mining,” which consists of people using high-powered computers to solve complicated math problems. The point of mining is to ensure that no one person can manipulate Bitcoin transactions because computers must be extremely powerful to do so.

Implications for Environmental Sustenance

To keep up with demand, miners use a lot of energy. If it trades at a higher price, then there is more mining. Until the prices hover at about $25,200, the consumption is around 180 TWh of electricity annually. By comparison, 100 million homes in America could be powered for one year by that much energy, says environmental analyst, Alex de Vries. And that is only one cryptocurrency; there are many more out there like Ethereum that uses the same energy-inefficient way to validate the transaction.

With smartphones being as advanced as they are nowadays, you don’t always need a professional camera to take great photos. Your iPhone camera is more than capable of doing that for you; you just need to keep in mind a few tips for snapping the perfect shot.

Change The Exposure

Live photos aren’t anything new to the iPhone, but many people aren’t aware that these do more than just play a short clip. If you flick up after taking a live photo, you’ll discover options for loop, bounce, and long exposure. It’s the last one that you want to pay attention to, especially if you’re shooting moving objects. This feature can do things like smoothen out flowing water or create light trails from vehicles in motion.

Keep The Same Settings

Some people tend to just snap a shot when they feel like it and hope that it turns out well. Others prefer to adjust the settings to suit what they’re photographing to ensure the image is always good quality. If you’re one of the latter, you’ll be glad to know there’s a way to save these settings so you can use them every time you open the camera app. Just go to preserve settings in the settings menu, and it’ll keep everything the same as the last time you took a photo.

Portrait Mode FTW

Portrait mode isn’t a new feature to the iPhone, but it is something that’s not utilized as much as it should be. Although it’s designed to help you take better photos of people, you can actually use it for skilled shots of animals too. By adjusting the 2x icon to 1x, the camera will find it easier to take better portrait pics, regardless of whether the subject matter is human or not.

The more photos you take on your iPhone camera, the more you’ll get the hang of snapping shots to be proud of.