In the wake of a new White House report on the climate implications of energy-hogging cryptocurrency mining, Cornell Engineering research suggests that providing green policy incentives for carbon capture and renewable energy should help such mining operations reduce their carbon footprints.
The Cornell study, “Mining Bitcoins with Carbon Capture and Renewable Energy for Carbon Neutrality Across States in the USA,” was published Sept. 14 in Energy & Environmental Science.
The carbon impact of cryptocurrency faces increasing energy scrutiny and was examined in a White House report, “Climate and Energy Implications of Crypto-Assets in the United States,” published Sept. 8 by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This report is a result of President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14067 (March 2022) – “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.”
“Bitcoin mining’s thirst for energy and the problematic, associated carbon emissions have raised concerns across the globe,” said senior author Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Energy Systems Engineering.
Read more at Cornell University