China’s bitcoin gold rush is a growing ‘threat’ to curbing climate change, study

Wang Shouyang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said: “The intensive bitcoin blockchain operation in China can quickly grow as a threat that could potentially undermine the emission reduction effort.”

Unfortunately, the researchers fear implementing traditional stopgaps like carbon tax credits would have little effect.

The researchers noted in the study: “Through scenario analysis, we find that some commonly implemented carbon emission policies, such as carbon taxation, are relatively ineffective for the bitcoin industry.

“On the contrary, site regulation policies for Bitcoin miners which induce changes in the energy consumption structure of the mining activities are able to provide effective negative feedbacks for the carbon emission of bitcoin blockchain operation.”