Sources
Bitcoin investments and climate change: A financial and carbon intensity perspective
by Dirk G.Baur and Josua Oll. Compares Bitcoin's carbon impact as an investment to that of the S&P 500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102575
Bitcoin Net Zero
doesn't deliver on the promise of the title, but is otherwise a great report of the current estimates and sensible extrapolation of Bitcoin's climate impact. https://t.co/fKCh6ZQUoB?amp=1
This Machine Greens
a well-made documentary serving as an (one-sided) industry counterpoint to the usual FUD. Beware, this is not science but marketing. But it's well-made: https://t.co/XtgZAAsmiP?amp=1
Bitcoin is Key to an Abundant, Clean Energy Future
Square Crypto's whitepaper explains the business case for financing overprovisioning intermittent renewable energy with Bitcoin mining. A little uncritical IMHO, but a good start for asking difficult questions. http://squ.re/BCEI-whitepaper
What People Get Wrong About Bitcoin's Climate Footprint
Nic Carter explains much of what I've written on in the FAQ concisely in this video: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-02-09/what-people-get-wrong-about-bitcoin-s-climate-footprint-nic-carter-video
Beyond the Energy Techlash: The Real Climate Impacts of Information Technology
A fact-based reexamination by ITIF of sensational claims about the climate impacts of broader IT, including a section on Bitcoin. ITIF also has a Clean Energy Innovation Policy Program that we are encouraging people to donate to because it appears both very efficient and fitting to Bitcoin's ethos. https://itif.org/publications/2020/07/06/beyond-energy-techlash-real-climate-impacts-information-technology
Bitcoin energy use - mined the gap
Also a good explanation and rational look at FUD about Bitcoin mining's impact by the International Energy Agency. Unfortunately, some unexamined shitcoining promotion at the end. https://www.iea.org/commentaries/bitcoin-energy-use-mined-the-gap
Implausible projections overestimate near-term Bitcoin CO2 emissions
A brutal scientific takedown of an unspeakably bad article on Bitcoin mining that appeared earlier in the same prestigious journal and was reported everywhere in the media. I wonder why this factual repudiation didn't receive the same attention. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0535-4
Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index
a live and scientific Bitcoin energy use calculation https://www.cbeci.org/
3rd Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study
mining stats and estimates from CCAF https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/alternative-finance/publications/3rd-global-cryptoasset-benchmarking-study
Bitcoin Mining’s Three Body Problem
explains seasonalities in Bitcoin Mining https://www.aniccaresearch.tech/blog/bitcoin-minings-three-body-problem
Bitooda mining dashboard
current mining stats
http://bitooda.io/public-files/Bitcoin%20Mining%20Hashrate%20and%20Power%20Analysis.pdf
Offsetbitcoin.org
What we do. Done. 2 years earlier. We only found this pretty late, and it appears the initative has stalled a bit. We also couldn't reach them for collaboration so far. A great example to live up to anyway: https://offsetbitcoin.org
Introducing CBPI: A New Way To Measure Bitcoin Network Electrical Consumption
not actually very new, but interesting article contrasting several evaluation methods Tl;Dr: They get closer all the time. We know better how much energy is spent every day. (Co2 - not so much) https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/introducing-cbpi-a-new-way-to-measure-bitcoin-network-electrical-consumption
The Carbon Footprint of Bitcoin
Christian Stoll, Lena Klaaßen, and Ulrich Gallersdörfer in Joule
one of the earliest scientific estimates of Bitcoin's Co2 footprint https://www.cell.com/joule/pdf/S2542-4351(19)30255-7.pdf
Life Cycle Assessment of Bitcoin Mining
Susanne Köhler and Massimo Pizzol in Environ. Sci. Technol.
appears to be the latest and currently best actual estimate of CO2 emissions; pioneered the use of the Life Cycle Assessment method for Bitcoin; finds that, at least regarding Co2, impacts beyond electricity (waste etc.) are negligible https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b05687
Bitcoin’s future carbon footprint
Preprint by the authors of (#the-carbon-footprint-of-bitcoin) plus Shize Qin and Da Zhang. Extremely speculative tea leaf reading making too many assumptions. Still very interesting as probably the first written account of many factors going into this question. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2011/2011.02612.pdf
Proof of Work, a pictorial essay
by Adam Gibson. Slightly rambling, might still be the clearest explanation of what the actual value of PoW is. https://joinmarket.me/blog/blog/pow-a-pictorial-essay/
The Cost of Bitcoin Mining Has Never Really Increased
by Yo-Der Song and Tomaso Aste. Gives an interesting perspective: The cost of Bitcoin mining has remained astonishingly constant at about 1% of the value transferred. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341436370_The_Cost_of_Bitcoin_Mining_Has_Never_Really_Increased