Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer electronic payment system that has rapidly grown in popularity in recent years. Usually, the complete history of Bitcoin blockchain data must be queried to acquire variables with economic meaning. This task has recently become increasingly difficult, as there are over 1.6 billion historical transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. It is thus important to query Bitcoin transaction data in a way that is more efficient and provides economic insights. We apply cohort analysis that interprets Bitcoin blockchain data using methods developed for population data in the social sciences. Specifically, we query and process the Bitcoin transaction input and output data within each daily cohort. This enables us to create datasets and visualizations for some key Bitcoin transaction indicators, including the daily lifespan distributions of spent transaction output (STXO) and the daily age distributions of the cumulative unspent transaction output (UTXO). We provide a computationally feasible approach for characterizing Bitcoin transactions that paves the way for future economic studies of Bitcoin.
Abstract In recent years, there is a widespread belief among researchers and academicians that Bitcoin usage is imposing an additional burden on the environment inducing climate change. Although several studies have focussed on issues related to the energy consumption of the basic cryptocurrencies, an open question remains regarding the environmental depiction of Bitcoin. By resorting to Bayesian analysis and quantile cointegrated vector autoregression (CQVAR), this study seeks to disentangle the driving forces that shape the carbon footprint of Bitcoin. The sample used in the empirical analysis consists of a daily panel dataset covering 50 countries over the period 2016–2018. The empirical findings corroborate a causal effect between the use of Bitcoin and its underlying carbon dioxide emissions generated by the increasing energy load. The CQVAR is associated with positive marginal posterior means for most of the covariates of the model across all the estimated quantiles. In contrast, there is a negative and statistically significant relationship between Bitcoin miner's revenue and carbon emissions, uncovering a multimodal distribution pattern of the marginal posterior densities which is stronger at higher than in lower quantiles. This finding suggests that the lower (higher) miner's Bitcoin revenues, the more abrupt (gradual) the effect on environmental degradation. Therefore, a sustainable energy strategy focussing on the penetration of renewable energy sources along with the use of energy‐efficient mining hardware will alleviate the carbon footprint of Bitcoin.
Zhaoxiong Huang, Zhenhao Li, Chun Sing Lai, Zhuoli Zhao · 8 authors
This work presents a novel blockchain-based energy trading mechanism for electric vehicles consisting of day-ahead and real-time markets. In the day-ahead market, electric vehicle users submit their bidding price to participate in the double auction mechanism. Subsequently, the smart match mechanism will be conducted by the charging system operator, to meet both personal interests and social benefits. After clearing the trading result, the charging system operator uploads the trading contract made in the day-ahead market to the blockchain. In the real-time market, the charging system operator checks the trading status and submits the updated trading results to the blockchain. This mechanism encourages participants in the double auction to pursue higher interests, in addition to rationally utilize the energy unmatched in the auction and to achieve the improvement of social welfare. Case studies are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. For buyers and sellers who successfully participate in the day-ahead market, the total profit increase for buyer and seller are 22.79% and 53.54%, respectively, as compared to without energy trading. With consideration of social welfare in the smart match mechanism, the peak load reduces from 182 to 146.5 kW, which is a 19.5% improvement.
Shuguo Chen, Weibin Ding, Zhongzheng Xiang, Yuanyuan Liu
The power trading system has the characteristics of nonlinearity, dynamics, and complexity. Part of the business data in the trading system needs to be exposed to numerous external business systems. The traditional centralized power trading model has some problems, such as low data security and trust crisis of regulators. Blockchain technology provides prominent ideas for solving these problems. Firstly, the improved AdaBoost algorithm is used to predict the supply and demand gap of power trading nodes. Secondly, based on the fact that the information on the blockchain is only open to the power supply side, a two‐stage game model of asymmetric information between the power supply side and the power user is constructed to capture the price competition behavior between them in order to find the Nash equilibrium price in two stages. Finally, the US PJM market electricity market data are used to carry out an example analysis to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm and model.
With the increasing use of information technologies (IT) their opportunities to ensure environmental sustainability and the risks of their widespread adoption are growing. And if the possibilities have been studied well enough, then the risks have been paid attention to relatively recently. However, awareness of these risks is becoming increasingly important with the spread of technologies. Currently, there are already hundreds of cryptocurrencies, and the technological basis for many of these currencies is the blockchain—a digital ledger of transactions. This article has assessed the environmental burden of mining and supporting transactions in the cryptocurrency market in Russia using CO2-equivalent. For this, for the first time, the amount of electricity consumed to support cryptocurrency transactions in Russia was calculated, data on the largest cryptocurrency mining centres were collected and systematized, and the main factors for the placement of both large and small private farms were determined. Based on the collected data a map of the spread of mining centres in Russia was created. Our analysis showed that on average, 2.977 million tons of CO2 equivalent are emitted in Bitcoin production in Russia, and the total emissions from cryptocurrency mining in Russia are 4.466 million tons of CO2 equivalent. Based on our data on environmental damage, we believe that when deciding on the use of blockchain technology, not only its capabilities should be taken into account, but also an assessment of the ratio of potential benefits and impact on the environment. A systematic understanding of interrelated direct and indirect impacts is needed to make decisions on the use of blockchain, since the technology shows itself as potentially one of the most energy and resource intensive.
Research background: Bitcoin is defined as digital money in a peer-to-peer decentralized payment network, an amalgam hybrid between fiat and commodity currency without a real value. This digital currency is also independent of any government or currency administration. Purpose of the article: This article explores whether bitcoin works as a medium of exchange or relates to assets, focusing on its current use and future utility regarding its characteristics. Methods: Analysing bitcoin statistical features, we found no connection with traditional asset categories such as stock, bonds and commodities either in intermediate time, or periods of financial crises. Findings & Value added: The study suggests that investors’ abiding interest in bitcoins can have a positive impact on their liquidity in the real time.
Abstract In this article, we explore the application of blockchain, a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT), in the field of energy trading. Specifically, we focus on crude oil trade. We argue that the application of blockchain technology and supplementary smart contracts supports responsible sourcing in complex supply chains and helps reduce information asymmetry in both the physical trade and paper trade of energy commodities markets. In order to apply blockchain technology to the energy market, we begin with a discussion on the architecture of blockchain and the different types of blockchain that might be applied in this sector. Further to this, we examine the current oil trading markets, particularly their relevant components, as part of the discussion on blockchain application. Subsequently, we look at how the various types of blockchain may be applied to the markets and examine their advantages and disadvantages. In conclusion, we look at the legal issues that may arise from such application, the potential solutions, and the potential impact of blockchain technology on the United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goals in the future and how a green fintech application can be developed.
Today’s technologies, techniques, and systems leveraged for managing energy trading operations in electric vehicles fall short in providing operational transparency, immutability, fault tolerance, traceability, and trusted data provenance features. They are centralized and vulnerable to the single point of failure problem, and less trustworthy as they are prone to the data modifications and deletion by adversaries. In this paper, we present the potential advantages of blockchain technology to manage energy trading operations between electric vehicles as it can offer data traceability, immutability, transparency, audit, security, and confidentiality in a fully decentralized manner. We identify and discuss the essential requirements for the successful implementation of blockchain technology to secure energy trading operations among electric vehicles. We present a detailed discussion on the potential opportunities offered by blockchain technology to secure the energy trading operations of electric vehicles. We discuss several blockchain-based research projects and case studies to highlight the practicability of blockchain technology in electric vehicles energy trading. Finally, we identify and discuss open challenges in fulfilling the requirements of electric vehicles energy trading applications.
The economic risk of the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin network remains unexplored. We develop the real-time artificial price for the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin network and thereby extend the climate value at risk (VaR) into the climate expected shortfall (ES) by employing both parametric and semiparametric models. On the basis of the best-fitted climate VaR and ES estimations, we find that the 95th percentiles (upper bound) of the climate VaR and ES are 8.04 and 10.37 billion euros, respectively, and the 99th percentiles (upper bound) of climate VaR and ES are 11.33 and 14.15 billion euros, respectively. Moreover, given the climate VaR and ES estimations on the basis of similar carbon footprint, the negative environmental externality of the Bitcoin network based on the current carbon price is not sufficient to reflect the environmental cost. Overall, our research provides new insight into the linkage between the Bitcoin network and the environment, which will provide meaningful information for both investors and policymakers.
The controversies surrounding Bitcoin, one of the most frequently used and advertised cryptocurrency, are focused on identifying its qualities, the advantages and disadvantages of using it and, last but not least, its ability to survive over time and become a viable alternative to the traditional currency, taking into account the effects on the environment of the technology used to extract and trade it. Based on such considerations, this article aims to provide an overview of this cryptocurrency, from the perspective of conducting a systematic review of the literature dedicated to the economic and environmental impact of Bitcoin. Using peer-reviewed articles collected from academic databases, we aimed at synthesizing and critically evaluating the points of view in the scientific literature regarding the doctrinal source of the emergence of Bitcoin, the identity of this cryptocurrency from an economic point of view, following its implications on the economic and social environment. Subsequently, this research offers the opportunity of evaluating the level of knowledge considering the impact of Bitcoin mining process on the environment from the perspective of the energy consumption and CO2emissions, in order to finally analyze Bitcoin regulation and identify possible solutions to reduce the negative impact on the environment and beyond. The findings suggest that, despite high energy consumption and adverse environmental impact, Bitcoin continues to be an instrument used in the economic environment for a variety of purposes. Moreover, the trend of regulating it in various countries shows that the use of Bitcoin is beginning to gain some legitimacy, despite criticism against this cryptocurrency.
Shivam Saxena, Hany E. Z. Farag, Aidan Brookson, Hjalmar Turesson · 5 authors
Residential energy trading systems (RETS) enable homeowners with distributed energy resources (DERs) to participate in virtualized energy markets that have the potential to reduce the peak demand of residential communities. Blockchains are key enablers of RETS, by virtue of providing a decentralized, self-governed network that mitigates concerns regarding privacy and transparency. However, more real-world case studies are needed to evaluate the techno-economic viability of blockchain-based RETS to improve their positive uptake. Thus, this article develops a permissioned blockchain-based RETS, which enables homeowners to select bidding strategies that consider the individual preferences of their DERs, and further evaluates the impact of the bidding strategies on reducing the peak demand of the community. The proposed system is implemented on the permissioned Hyperledger Fabric platform, where a decentralized ledger is used to store all energy bids, and a smart contract is used to execute a double auction mechanism and dispatch the homeowner DERs. The proposed system is validated by conducting simulations on a 8-home community using real-world data, and also by deploying the system to a Canadian microgrid, where the smart contract execution time is benchmarked. Simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed system by achieving a peak demand reduction of up to 48 kW (62%), which leads to an average savings of $1.02 M for the distribution system operator by avoiding transformer upgrades. Also, the simulation results show that the execution time of the proposed smart contract is 17.12 seconds across 12 nodes, which is sufficient for RETS.
This paper analyzes the connectedness among bitcoin, gold, and crude oil between 3 January 2017 and 31 December 2019. The paper’s motivation is based upon the idea that bitcoin can be similar to gold in terms of its hedging properties and can be used for hedging for different assets. Moreover, although it is more metaphorical, bitcoin is also accepted because it is mined like crude oil, namely, a commodity. These similarities can be investigated by analyzing the connectedness among these financial assets. The connectedness results derived from both total connectedness and frequency connectedness methods indicate that volatility connectedness is higher than the return connectedness among these assets. Furthermore, connectedness in volatilities is mostly driven by medium frequency, although connectedness in returns mostly exists in high frequency. Therefore, these results suggest that investors should consider these financial assets for their diversification decisions. The results suggest that although diversification among these three assets is more difficult in the short- and medium-term, investors may benefit from diversification in the long-run.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the spillover impacts between Bitcoin and the major energy commodities. Design/methodology/approach: To do so, we employ an asymmetric multivariate VAR-BEKK-AGARCH model to study spillover effects between Bitcoin and three energy commodities during the period from July 18, 2010 to June 30, 2018. Findings: The empirical findings show return spillovers from energy stock indices to Bitcoin. We find unilateral return and volatility spillovers and bidirectional shock influences and demonstrate portfolio management implications of dynamic conditional correlation. The little correlation of Bitcoin with the stock indices offers portfolio benefits. Our findings imply the importance of Bitcoin in portfolio construction and reflects the importance of diversification of portfolio between energy commodities and the crypto-currencies, mainly Bitcoin. Practical Implications: Bitcoin has qualified a fast development while across a time and several shareholders and investors are demonstrating importance in its possibility as a consolidative component of portfolio variation. Originality/value: The significant extension is the using of a recently established multivariate econometric method, VAR-BEKK-AGARCH, which is utilized to study the degree of incorporation in rapports of instability and return among Bitcoin and energy commodities.
Abstract The large energy consumption and the associated carbon emission of the Bitcoin blockchain operations are growing to a non-negligible problem that could potentially undermine the sustainable efforts of many countries around the world. In this paper, we make the first and original attempt to investigate the carbon emission flows of the Bitcoin blockchain operations in China under different carbon policies with a Bitcoin blockchain carbon emission (BBCE) model. We find that without any policy interventions, the annual energy consumption of the Bitcoin blockchain in China is expected to maximize in 2024 at 296.59 Twh and generate 130.50 million metric tons of carbon emission flows correspondingly, which would exceed the annualized greenhouse gas emission level of the Czech Republic and Portugal in 2016. Moreover, the maximum carbon emission per GDP of the Bitcoin industry is estimated to reach 10.77 kg/USD in June 2026 based on benchmark assessments. In addition, policies that induce changes in the energy consumption structure of the mining activities may be more effective than intuitive punitive measures in limiting the total amount of carbon emission in the Bitcoin blockchain operation. In particular, we find that market access policy has an incentive effect on the emission reduction of the Bitcoin industry. After evaluating the policy effectiveness, we provide some novel insights for the sustainable operations of the disruptive blockchain technology by analyzing the carbon emissions pattern of the Bitcoin blockchain.
The provision of electric vehicles (EVs) is increasing due to the need for ecological green energy. The increment in EVs leads to an intelligent electric vehicle transportation system's need instead of cloud-based systems to manage privacy and security issues. Collecting and delivering the data to current transportation systems means disclosing personal information about vehicles and drivers. We have proposed a secure and intelligent electric vehicle transportation system based on blockchain and machine learning. The proposed method utilizes the state of the art smart contract module of blockchain to build an inference engine. This system takes the sensors' data from the vehicle control unit of EV, stores it in the blockchain, makes decisions using an inference engine, and executes those decisions using actuators and user interface. We have utilized a double-layer optimized long short term memory (LSTM) algorithm to predict EV's stator temperature. We have also performed an informal analysis to demonstrate the proposed system's robustness and reliability. This system will resolve the security issues for both information and energy interactions in EVs.
Maritime industry is one of the most globally connected industries that include transportation of numerous types of goods and documents across the world. With that said, it is safe to say that abundance of financial and paper-trail transactions are made every day in order for goods to be transported from one place to another. The scope of this paper is to show that by implementing blockchain technology savings in time and money could be generated. This paper presents costs of container freights and rates in the last few years and assumes possible future costs of container freights and rates if blockchain based technology is implemented. Additionally, by using comparative method economical and time value of “traditional” bill of lading is compared with a blockchain bill of lading solution. It is also important to mention the potential impact of the blockchain technology on the world environment and ecology by reducing global paper consumption and emissions from vehicles that are used in the transportation process. This paper also gives a descriptive and comprehensive overview of current and future applications of blockchain technology in maritime industry.
Carbon credits should reduce the environmental pollution and carbon emission of the Earth in the future. The market for carbon credits will become a critical issue from 2021, and carbon credits will be applied to systems where individuals can trade. In order for these carbon credits to be traded between individuals, however, a corresponding exchange of carbon credits is needed. Policies, strategies, and technologies are also necessary to measure the trading of carbon credits. This paper aims at making transactions more reliable by applying blockchain technology to measure carbon emission rights. It uses blockchain to verify carbon emissions rights among the UN-SDGs’ (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals’) 17 tasks. In addition, it introduces the necessary dApp. In fact, we can protect against carbon emissions anomalies by using big data and artificial intelligence in mobile cloud environments. Thus, this paper proposes a blockchain-based carbon emission rights verification system to learn proven data further by using the governance system analysis and blockchain mainnet engine to solve these problems.
Blockchain, as an emerging technology and a disruptive innovation, has attracted attention from both academia and industry. However, there are many potential risks associated with it, such as the technical risk, the legal risk and the privacy risk. A comprehensive risk analysis is crucial for cost-effective deployment of blockchain technology. Important adoption decisions, including when to deploy blockchain, how to plan the investment, how to transfer current businesses onto blockchain, and how to price the blockchain service depend on this risk analysis. Yet very little study exists concerning the blockchain adoption planning with risks analysis. This research presents a cost-and-risk analysis framework and an adoption planning method for the case of blockchain application in carbon trading. Design requirements implied by the analysis are inferred and the architecture of a novel hybrid blockchain system is proposed. The system leverages the advantages of blockchain technology and incorporates institutional risk control framework. The optimal adoption strategy of this system is derived through modelling of users’ and the organizer’s behavior.
Arun Kumar Sangaiah, Hongguang Xiao, Wang Jin, Jingjing Tan · 6 authors
The development of blockchain technology is very rapidly. As a decentralized distributed technology, the blockchain has become one of the most promising Internet applications, and its application in the power balance trading platform has also received extensive attention. In view of the information asymmetry between the trading center and the margin trading users in the power balance trading platform, it is difficult to guarantee the fairness of the transaction and affect the actual income of the production consumers. First, we analyze the trading mechanism of the power surplus market.Then we designed a smart contract for multi-party bidding power resources based on blockchain technology, and achieved the decentralized power trading decision to ensure the information is symmetric and fair.At the same time, the credibility model is established by analyzing the user's recent transaction records, and we design a corresponding punishment mechanism to strengthen the constraint on the execution of offline point-to-point power transactions.