In mid-May 2021, billionaire Elon Musk sent a tweet that crashed the cryptocurrency market. The Tesla CEO announced the electric vehicle company would no longer accept bitcoin for purchases due to its huge energy consumption. So why does crypto-mining use so much electricity, and is there a sustainable alternative? CNBC's Nessa Anwar is joined by Ryan Browne to explain.

Contents of this video:
0:00 - Intro
0:34 - What makes crypto different?
1:19 - Why was crypto-mining introduced?
1:49 - How does crypto-mining work?
2:19 - The big problem with crypto-mining
3:23 - How much energy does Bitcoin use?
4:17 - Is it just Bitcoin with these issues?
4:35 - Bitcoin's biggest mining countries
5:04 - Bitcoin blackouts
5:20 - Governments hit back at miners
5:46 - The benefits of crypto
6:00 - Crypto vs online banking
6:55 - Ethereum's plan to lower energy use
7:40 - Is crypto-mining worth it?

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