By Susie Violet Ward · Forbes · 9 September 2024
Two studies published around the time of the article challenge the view that bitcoin mining is environmentally harmful. A Bitcoin Policy Institute study, How Bitcoin Mining Reduces Carbon Emissions, finds that mining is increasingly powered by renewable energy and can help stabilise grids by using excess capacity, acting as a buyer of last resort for wind and solar power that might otherwise be curtailed.
A Digital Assets Research Institute paper, Runaway Citations and the Persistence of Bitcoin Misinformation, reviews seven years of research on bitcoin’s energy use and argues that much of it relied on non-empirical data and faulty assumptions, producing sensational headlines that influenced policy. The article discusses whether mining will remain profitable after the final bitcoin is mined around 2140, when miners will rely on transaction fees. It also looks at how weak or non-empirical research can feed into policy debates around mining.