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　　The research analysis said that between 2016 and 2021, every dollar of Bitcoin’s market value will generate an average of 35 cents of global climate damage. For comparison, gasoline produced 41 cents and beef production produced a 33-cent loss.

　　The study authors see an Ethereum “merger” as a potential solution to improving the sustainability of the cryptocurrency. If Bitcoin made a similar update, the climate damage it estimated in this study would likely become negligible.

　　"Nature"'s "Scientific Reports" published a new study on September 29, saying that the environmental cost of mining the encrypted digital currency Bitcoin is close to the environmental cost of producing beef.

　　Between 2016 and 2021, every dollar of bitcoin’s market value generates an average of 35 cents of global climate damage, the research analysis said. For comparison, gasoline produced 41 cents and beef production produced a 33-cent loss. Bitcoin is often compared to gold when considering its economic value and environmental impact, but this new study found that the climate damage of Bitcoin is actually 8.75 times that of gold.

　　The vast majority of the energy Bitcoin consumes is used to validate transactions and "mine" new coins. In December 2021, Bitcoin’s dollar market cap is close to $960 billion, accounting for about 41% of the cryptocurrency’s global market share. While Bitcoin is known to be highly energy-intensive, the extent of Bitcoin’s climate damage has been unclear.

　　The study authors point out that in 2020, the energy use of Bitcoin mining is 75.4 terawatt hours (TWhyear-1) per year, which is higher than the energy use of Austria (69.9 TWhyear-1) or Portugal (48.4 TWhyear-1).

　　The authors assess Bitcoin’s climate damage based on three sustainability metrics: whether the estimated climate damage increases over time; whether the market price of bitcoin exceeds the economic cost of climate damage; climate damage per bitcoin mined compared to other industries and climate damage to commodities.

　　The study authors estimated Bitcoin’s overall electricity consumption, and the resulting carbon dioxide emissions that are harmful to the planet. They then applied an estimate of the social cost of carbon emissions (SCC) to convert these carbon dioxide emissions into dollar losses. With a social cost of carbon emissions of $100 per ton, the researchers found that climate losses averaged $3,088 per bitcoin mined. Between 2016 and 2021, Bitcoin’s total global climate damage reached $12 billion.

　　The researchers found that energy emissions from Bitcoin mining increased 126-fold – from 0.9 tons per coin in 2016 to 113 tons per coin in 2021. Calculations show that every bitcoin mined in 2021 will generate $11,314 in climate damage. The damage peaked in May 2020, at 156% of the currency’s value, illustrating that every $1 of Bitcoin’s market cap produces $1.56 in global climate damage.

　　The report estimates climate damage, CO2 emissions, and climate damage from bitcoin mining as a share of bitcoin’s price.

　　The authors compare Bitcoin climate damage to other industries and products, such as power generation, crude oil processing, agricultural meat production, and precious metal mining. From 2016 to 2021, Bitcoin’s average climate damage accounted for 35% of its market value, which is lower than the market value of natural gas power generation (46%) and crude oil refining into gasoline (41%), but more than beef production (33%). %) and gold mining (4%).

　　It is important to note that there is still much debate about what the social cost of carbon emissions should be. With a baseline of $100 a ton, the researchers actually took a middle-of-the-road approach. The U.S. government, when setting pollution-related regulations, set the social cost of carbon emissions at $51 per ton, a figure that many experts believe is too low. Research published in the journal Nature earlier this month put the cost at $185 a ton.

　　Regardless, the researchers noted that Bitcoin's climate damage has grown over time, whether using lower or higher estimates of the social cost of carbon emissions.

　　According to a September report by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, cryptocurrencies are heating the planet as much each year as all the diesel fuel used on American railroads. Another September report by environmental groups Earthjustice and the Sierra Club came to a similar conclusion: cryptocurrency mining emits about 27.4 million tons of carbon dioxide in a year, the most polluted by the largest U.S. coal plant in 2021. three times.

　　The authors concluded that Bitcoin fell short of the three key sustainability metrics they assessed and that a radical shift was needed to make Bitcoin mining sustainable, including potential regulatory measures.

　　Bitcoin’s closest “rival,” Ethereum, recently completed a major software update that slashed energy consumption in an operation known as a “merge.” Andrew Goodkind, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor of economics at the University of New Mexico, told The Verge that this is a potential solution to improving the sustainability of cryptocurrencies. If Bitcoin were to undergo a similar update, "the climate damage it estimated in this study would likely become negligible," the study said.