IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2305.01815.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Don't Trust, Verify: Towards a Framework for the Greening of Bitcoin

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Ignacio Iba~nez
  • Alexander Freier

Abstract

For more than a decade, Bitcoin has gained as much adoption as it has received criticism. Fundamentally, Bitcoin is under fire for the high carbon footprint that results from the energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm. There is a trend however for Bitcoin mining to adopt a trajectory toward achieving carbon-negative status, notably due to the adoption of methane-based mining and mining-based flexible load response (FLR) to complement variable renewable energy (VRE) generation. Miners and electricity sellers may increase their profitability not only by taking advantage of excess energy, but also by selling green tokens to buyers interested in greening their portfolios. Nevertheless, a proper ''green Bitcoin'' accounting system requires a standard framework for the accreditation of sustainable bitcoin holdings. The proper way to build such a framework remains contested. In this paper, we survey the different sustainable Bitcoin accounting systems. Analyzing the various alternatives, we suggest a path forward.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Ignacio Iba~nez & Alexander Freier, 2023. "Don't Trust, Verify: Towards a Framework for the Greening of Bitcoin," Papers 2305.01815, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2305.01815
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.01815
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anders Bjørn & Shannon M. Lloyd & Matthew Brander & H. Damon Matthews, 2022. "Renewable energy certificates threaten the integrity of corporate science-based targets," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 12(6), pages 539-546, June.
    2. Gillenwater, Michael & Lu, Xi & Fischlein, Miriam, 2014. "Additionality of wind energy investments in the U.S. voluntary green power market," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 452-457.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kemper, Marina & Styles, Alexandra & Mundt, Juliane & Werner, Robert & Kreis, Philippa, 2024. "Markt- vs. ortsbasierter Ansatz: Vorschlag zur Harmonisierung der Klimabilanzierung von Strom [Carbon Accounting of Electricity: Managing the Gap between market- and location-based Approaches]," Hamburg Institut Discussion Papers 304458, HIR Hamburg Institut Research gGmbH.
    2. Maida Hadziosmanovic & Shannon M. Lloyd & Anders Bjørn & Raymond L. Paquin & Nadine Mengis & H. Damon Matthews, 2022. "Using cumulative carbon budgets and corporate carbon disclosure to inform ambitious corporate emissions targets and long‐term mitigation pathways," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(5), pages 1747-1759, October.
    3. Clara Privato & Matthew P. Johnson & Timo Busch, 2024. "Raising the bar: What determines the ambition level of corporate climate targets?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(9), pages 1-24, September.
    4. Herbes, Carsten & Rilling, Benedikt & MacDonald, Scott & Boutin, Nathalie & Bigerna, Simona, 2020. "Are voluntary markets effective in replacing state-led support for the expansion of renewables? – A comparative analysis of voluntary green electricity markets in the UK, Germany, France and Italy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    5. Zhou, Dequn & Dong, Zhuojia & Sang, Xiuzhi & Wang, Qunwei & Yu, Xianyu, 2023. "Do feed-in tariff reduction and green certificate trading effectively promote regional sustainable development？," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    6. Shen, Angxing & Zhang, Jihong, 2024. "Technologies for CO2 emission reduction and low-carbon development in primary aluminum industry in China: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PA).
    7. Calikoglu, Umit & Aydinalp Koksal, Merih, 2022. "Green electricity and Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin demand analysis for Türkiye," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    8. Vladimir Yu. Linnik & E. Yu. Voronova & Larisa V. Pavlyuk & Alexey Zich, 2020. "Wind Power: Current State and Perspectives," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(6), pages 75-79.
    9. Nan Shang & Guori Huang & Yuan Leng & Jihong Zhang & Angxing Shen, 2023. "Time Limit of Environmental Benefits of Renewable Energy Power Projects—Analysis Based on Monte Carlo Simulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-14, October.
    10. Tristan Jourde & Arthur Stalla-Bourdillon, 2024. "PEnvironmental Preferences and Sector Valuations," Working papers 964, Banque de France.
    11. Dagher, Leila & Mansour, Mohamad, 2020. "What can GCC countries learn from well-established green power markets in other countries?," MPRA Paper 116073, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Wang, Tan & Gong, Yu & Jiang, Chuanwen, 2014. "A review on promoting share of renewable energy by green-trading mechanisms in power system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 923-929.
    13. Yu, Hao & Wei, Yi-Ming & Tang, Bao-Jun & Mi, Zhifu & Pan, Su-Yan, 2016. "Assessment on the research trend of low-carbon energy technology investment: A bibliometric analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 960-970.
    14. Galzi, Pierre-Yves, 2023. "Do green electricity consumers contribute to the increase in electricity generation capacity from renewable energy sources? Evidence from France," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    15. Li, Peixian & Ng, Jeremy & Lu, Yujie, 2022. "Accelerating the adoption of renewable energy certificate: Insights from a survey of corporate renewable procurement in Singapore," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 1272-1282.
    16. Fikru, Mahelet G. & Canfield, Casey, 2024. "Choosing both/and: Encouraging green energy purchases in community choice aggregation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    17. Barry D. Solomon & Shan Zhou, 2021. "Renewable Portfolio Standards: Do Voluntary Goals vs. Mandatory Standards Make a Difference?," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(2), pages 146-163, March.
    18. Hechelmann, Ron-Hendrik & Paris, Aaron & Buchenau, Nadja & Ebersold, Felix, 2023. "Decarbonisation strategies for manufacturing: A technical and economic comparison," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    19. Kumar, Indraneel & Tyner, Wallace E. & Labi, Samuel & Sinha, Kumares C., 2021. "“The Answer My Friend is Blowin’ in the Wind”: A stochastic assessment of wind farms financial feasibility and economic efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    20. Yu-Jen Chen & Y. C. Shiah, 2016. "Experiments on the Performance of Small Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine with Passive Pitch Control by Disk Pulley," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-13, May.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2305.01815. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.