Separate British and US academic studies have highlighted bitcoin’s damaging carbon footprint as European governments scramble to subsidise citizens’ spiralling energy costs, and rival cryptocurrencies such as ethereum switch to greener power methods.
“Environmentalists, financial institutions and policymakers are growing increasingly concerned about bitcoin’s seemingly insatiable electricity consumption and its associated environmental repercussions,” Ms Neumiller wrote.“With an electricity consumption of entire nations, and the international community’s much stronger commitment to intensify decarbonisation efforts to tackle climate change, at first glance Bitcoin seems to jeopardise those efforts.
In 2022, the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary affairs considered banning crypto assets using proof-of-work in its flagshipon the basis that it was incompatible with the carbon emission reduction targets in the Paris AgreementBitcoin’s supporters have consistently denounced Ethereum’s conversion as crypto apostasy because proof-of-stake reduces the decentralised, apolitical nature of digital asset networks.
Elective vehicle maker Tesla bought bitcoin in early 2021 as the price surged and markets came to believe it was on the brink of widespread institutional adoption.