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Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2°C

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 931–933 (2018)Cite this article

Matters Arising to this article was published on 28 August 2019

Matters Arising to this article was published on 28 August 2019

Matters Arising to this article was published on 28 August 2019

A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 14 November 2018

Bitcoin is a power-hungry cryptocurrency that is increasingly used as an investment and payment system. Here we show that projected Bitcoin usage, should it follow the rate of adoption of other broadly adopted technologies, could alone produce enough CO2 emissions to push warming above 2 °C within less than three decades.

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Fig. 1: Carbon emissions from projected Bitcoin usage.

Data availability

The authors declare that all data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article, its Supplementary Information files and at https://github.com/moracamilo/Bitcoin/.

Code availability

Raw code used for this study are publicly available online at https://github.com/moracamilo/Bitcoin/.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the numerous data providers named in the supplements of this paper for making their data freely available. We also thank SeaGrant Hawaii for providing funds to acquire the computers used in these analyses. This paper was developed as part of the graduate course on ‘Methods for Large-Scale Analyses’ in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Environment, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Camilo Mora, Katie Taladay & Erik C. Franklin

  2. Department of Biology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Randi L. Rollins

  3. Pacific Biosciences Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Randi L. Rollins

  4. Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Science, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Michael B. Kantar

  5. Department of Botany, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Mason K. Chock & Mio Shimada

  6. Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Kāne‘ohe, HI, USA

    Erik C. Franklin

Authors
  1. Camilo Mora
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  2. Randi L. Rollins
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  3. Katie Taladay
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  4. Michael B. Kantar
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  5. Mason K. Chock
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  6. Mio Shimada
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  7. Erik C. Franklin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Camilo Mora.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

, Supplementary Figures 1-2, Supplementary Tables 1 – 4

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Mora, C., Rollins, R.L., Taladay, K. et al. Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2°C. Nature Clim Change 8, 931–933 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0321-8

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