Bitcoin mining will use as much energy as a whole country within 3 years

Embargoed until: Publicly released:
Peer-reviewed: This work was reviewed and scrutinised by relevant independent experts.

Within three years the computers used to mine for Bitcoin will use more energy and produce more carbon emissions than an entire European country, according to Chinese research. Given the current trends in Bitcoin mining, the authors estimate that the energy consumption from this process will peak in 2024 at around 297 terawatt-hours; by comparison, the energy consumption of Italy is 293 terawatt-hours. They say regulations are needed but that current policies like carbon taxation are not effective at curbing emissions from the Bitcoin industry. Instead, they say that individual site regulation policies for Bitcoin miners are the best way to reduce future emissions from the blockchain operation.

Journal/conference: Nature Communications

Link to research (DOI): 10.1038/s41467-021-22256-3

Organisation/s: Tsinghua University, China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Funder: This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71988101 and 72022019).

Media release

From: Springer Nature

Environmental science: Climate impacts of Bitcoin mining in China

The energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with Bitcoin mining are accelerating rapidly in China, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. Without more stringent regulations and policy changes, these impacts could undermine global sustainability efforts.

The Bitcoin cryptocurrency relies upon blockchain technology, which enables publicly recorded peer-to-peer transfers through encrypted computer networks without the need for a centralized authority such as a bank. Mining Bitcoin requires constantly expending and/or expanding computer processing power, which is associated with increasing energy consumption.

Dabo Guan, Shouyang Wang and colleagues track carbon emission flows of Bitcoin blockchain operations in China with a simulated carbon emission model. Given the current trends in Bitcoin mining, they estimate that the energy consumption from this process will peak in 2024 at around 297 terawatt-hours and will generate around 130 million metric tons of carbon emissions. These amounts exceed the entire annual greenhouse gas emissions outputs of entire mid-sized countries in Europe, such as Italy or the Czech Republic. The authors suggest that policy interventions are critical to reduce these impacts. Feeding different scenarios into their model, however, they find that current policies like carbon taxation are not effective at curbing emissions from the Bitcoin industry. Instead, they find that individual site regulation policies for Bitcoin miners represent the best way to alter the current energy consumption structure and reduce future emissions from the blockchain operation.

Attachments:

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public

  • Springer Nature
    Web page
    Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

News for:

International

Media contact details for this story are only visible to registered journalists.