Study Fingers Bitcoin as Major Climate Change Culprit

Researchers predict that activity around the digital currency could single-handedly push warming above 2 °C within 30 years, but other experts say the conclusion is flawed.

Written byShawna Williams

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If use of the power-hungry digital currency bitcoin grows rapidly in the coming years, its emissions could significantly accelerate global climate change, according to an analysis published today (October 29) in Nature Climate Change.

Critics say the study is flawed, and its problems include ignoring likely future energy-efficient advances in how bitcoin operates.

It’s well known that bitcoin and similar digital currencies have high energy demands. Bitcoin has no central banking authority, and transactions are instead verified by “miners” through a computationally demanding process. “Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency with heavy hardware requirements, and this obviously translates into large electricity demands,” says study coauthor Randi Rollins of the University of Hawaii at Manoa in a press release.

Rollins and her colleagues estimated that the use of bitcoins in the year 2017 emitted 69 million metric tons of CO2. They also used the rates of adoption of popular ...

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Meet the Author

Shawna Williams
Shawna was an editor at The Scientist from 2017 through 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Colorado College and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Previously, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, and in the communications offices of several academic research institutions. As news director, Shawna assigned and edited news, opinion, and in-depth feature articles for the website on all aspects of the life sciences. She is based in central Washington State, and is a member of the Northwest Science Writers Association and the National Association of Science Writers.
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