Short answers, pulled from the story.
Graphics Processing Unit mining devices emerged in October 2010 through new software configurations. Early cryptocurrency systems relied on central processing units to mine coins in their earliest days before this shift occurred.
Statistics suggested that 67% of electricity powering Bitcoin mining during 2020 and 2021 came from fossil energy sources. This activity produced more than 85 million tons of CO2 during that same period.
A report by Bloomberg suggested that cryptocurrency miners spent $15 billion on GPUs during the mining craze since 2021. The increasing demand caused a shortage that continued until production finally caught up in 2023.
Ethereum finished its transition from the traditional Proof of Work algorithm to a Proof of Stake algorithm in September 2022. This change significantly reduced computational costs and made it economically infeasible to use GPUs to mine Ethereum.
Hackers typically limit the amount of GPU power by 75% to stay undetected while using a small portion for cryptocurrency extraction. This malicious activity targets consumer devices to generate unauthorized revenue streams.