Bitcoin mining generates significant electronic trash, whichrepresents an increasing hazard to the environment. The average life cycle of the sophisticated computers used to discover the units of the world's top cryptocurrency was only 1.3 years.

In comparison to other technological devices, such as iPhones, it is exceedingly short. Bitcoin mining generated 30,700 tonnes of electronic garbage in the 12 months leading up to May, which was "equivalent to the amount of small IT and communications equipment waste produced by a country like the Netherlands.”

The battle to find new bitcoins — one unit is worth more than $47,000  after a meteoric climb this year — means that the processing capacity of mining computers will soon be obsolete. And the more bitcoin is worth, the more electronic waste there is.

Despite the large amount of garbage produced, it is still a small portion of the global total generated by discarding electronic equipment, which totaled 53.6 million tonnes last year.