Is It Ethical To Mine Cryptocurrency?

Using your computer to mine cryptocurrency can, at first glance, feel a bit risky, even though the rewards look great. Is it too good to be true?

Using your existing hardware to create digital money is easy, low-commitment and low-cost; especially when you use Cudo Miner.

Some may lean towards “a bit too easy”. What’s the catch?

Generating a decentralised source of income, without traditional banking systems to act as a governor, is naturally going to evoke some distrust. Anything that goes against the status quo normally does.

Scratch beneath the surface, however, and you’ll soon see that there’s nothing to fear. Furthermore, it has fantastic benefits for personal users, businesses and charities, with an extremely secure infrastructure.

Cryptocurrency is far less agreeable to criminals than fiat currency.

Traditional money, such as the pound and dollar, is at the heart of criminal activity.

Whether money is physically in your pocket, or sitting in your bank account, criminals are constantly finding new ways to part you from it – whether that’s by intimidation on the street, or cleverly-written emails to request personal details.

Similarly, the material nature of fiat currency leaves it wide open to counterfeiting – Make a copy that looks authentic enough and you could fool any number of retailers. In 2016, the UK alone removed 347,000 fraudulent bank notes out of circulation with a face value of £7.5 million.

The misuse of money is prevalent in every society, in every country in the world.

Cryptocurrency isn’t always tangible, but this also makes it trackable and very difficult to fake.

While older cryptocurrencies were relatively transparent, more recent coins (and the ones you’re most likely to mine) are known as ‘private’ – although they undergo the same blockchain verification process as any other crypto, different parts of the transaction are obscured, ensuring the user’s privacy.

The transaction still needs to be verified by the blockchain before completion (so it can’t be duplicated, or faked), but the individual purchase cannot be picked out. So, cryptocurrency traders can be assured that the transaction is legitimate, without worrying about personal details being exposed.

Although this may leave one to wonder why you would wish to remain anonymous, let’s not forget that this is a far more robust security strategy than that of fiat currency, which generally requires no inherent verification whatsoever.

To brand cryptocurrency as morally objectionable, purely because of the few who choose to use it for criminal means, would be extremely myopic.

Mining cryptocurrency is a solution to existing concerns.

Would we ban cutlery because the sharp edge can be abused? Of course not. We use it as intended, because it fulfils a need; we deal with the criminals and their misappropriated choices separately.

Cryptocurrency should be viewed in the same way.

It satisfies our need for a peer-to-peer, decentralised method of using money, without the restrictions set by banks; but with relevant safety precautions still attached.

Why should we stand in the way of progress, simply because of a corrupt minority?

Cryptocurrency doesn’t threaten our societal norms. It also doesn’t need to ignore our environmental responsibilities.

When considering if mining cryptocurrency is ethical, we must also consider how it affects the planet.

Using electricity for any unnecessary purpose is rightly regarded with scorn; the CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels is the leading cause of global warming. Therefore, a clean conscience should dictate that we promote less energy consumption, not more.

Although combining the power of countless GPUs to generate money could be regarded as irresponsible, cryptocurrency mining can be both effective and environmentally sound – and we can prove it.

As the first cryptocurrency business to declare themselves 100% carbon neutral, Cudo Miner is leading the industry and moulding its future.

By calculating the energy used by each machine which utilises Cudo Miner, an equivalent number of carbon credits are purchased. These credits fund renewable energy projects, such as wind farms, to ensure that cryptocurrency mining doesn’t do more harm than good.

You don’t need to just mine for yourself. You can also donate your cryptocurrency to charity.

If you’re a company wishing to meet CSR targets, the carbon neutral stance above can contribute. Similarly, as a business or private user, you can choose to donate the funds raised by Cudo Miner to a charity of your choice.