The Carbon Footprint of Bitcoin | Christian Stoll
Channel: Value of Bitcoin
Date: 2021-01-23

Participation in the Bitcoin blockchain validation process requires specialized hardware and vast amounts of electricity, which translates into a significant carbon footprint. Here, we demonstrate a methodology for estimating the power consumption associated with Bitcoin’s blockchain based on IPO filings of major hardware manufacturers, insights on mining facility operations, and mining pool compositions. We then translate our power consumption estimate into carbon emissions, using the localization of IP addresses. We determine the annual electricity consumption of Bitcoin, as of November 2018, to be 45.8 TWh and estimate that annual carbon emissions range from 22.0 to 22.9 MtCO2. This means that the emissions produced by Bitcoin sit between the levels produced by the nations of Jordan and Sri Lanka, which is comparable to the level of Kansas City.

Christian Stoll is a researcher at MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, as well as at TUM Center for Energy Markets. His research focuses on climate change from an economic point of view. Jointly with Lena Klaaßen and Ulich Gallersdörfer, he published the paper “The Carbon Footprint of Bitcoint” in 2019 – the results of the paper received more than 3 billion visits in global media.

About Bitcoin he says:
"No opinion; value = benefits - costs (I can only comment on environmental cost)"

This presentation was performed during the Value of Bitcoin Conference 2020 - on June 2nd 2020
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