Today's discussion centers on whether cryptocurrencies may be used to pay for products and services in developed and underdeveloped nations. The role of cryptocurrencies as investment and speculative trading vehicles is also expanding. The cryptocurrency bitcoin serves as an illustration of such use. The first cryptocurrency to develop value without initially satisfying requirements and carrying any type of collateral in the form of traditional currencies is bitcoin. The analysis of the variables influencing the price of bitcoin is one of the most hotly debated subjects in the financial literature. The purpose of this study is to look into the connection between the price of natural gas and crude oil and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. In this study, the effect of Brent oil, crude oil and natural gas prices on Bitcoin was examined. For the data containing the weekly time series for the period 05.01.2020-26.12.2021, FMOLS and DOLS tests were conducted, which show the coefficient of cointegration, causality and relationship. According to the findings of the study, according to the FMOLS test, 1% Bitcoin in brent oil price increases 0.000176% (probability values according to DOLS do not confirm the effect). Likewise, when we look at crude oil, according to FMOLS test, 1% Bitcoin in crude oil price increases 0.000180% (the probability values according to DOLS do not confirm the effect). When we look at the changes in the Bitcoin price, according to the DOLS test, a 1% increase in the Bitcoin price increases the Brent oil by 77.86132% (the probability values according to FMOLS do not confirm the effect).
Kevin P. Hallinan, Haoliang Lu, Rydge B. Mulford, Lauren Bower · 7 authors
Despite the climate commitments made by countries in the Paris Climate Agreement adopted in 2015 and reinforced during COP 21 and with notably less success during COP 22, world carbon emissions increased in both 2021 and 2022. It is increasingly unlikely that the world will achieve the targeted 50% carbon reduction by 2030, the reduction approximately needed for reducing global temperature rise since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to less than 1.5 deg. C. At the same time, there remain nearly 2 billion people in the world who have no or highly unreliable access to power. In developed countries, access to both clean energy and energy efficiency investment in residences within low to moderate income communities has also lagged. This paper provides a review of the âProductive Use of Energy (PUE)â, which is a means to add value to solar energy mini- and micro-grids to ensure investment worthiness and add more value to the communities being served. In this context, it posits an opportunity to leverage Bitcoin mining as a common PUE strategy applicable to new solar installations. Several actual pilot cases are described to demonstrate this potential throughout the world and at multiple scales. These include: (i) existing micro-grids with significant stranded energy to generate income that could be used to reduce the cost per kWh for the community; (ii) new solar micro-grids optimized to meet community load and mining operations; (iii) dedicated solar-powered Bitcoin mining mini-grids developed solely to create a funding stream for self-investment by communities for their benefit; and (iv) a low-income residential solar-powered Bitcoin miner to reduce the energy cost burden for residents. Several of these scenarios show significant potential to aid investment worthiness.
The uniqueness of this investigation lies in empirically testing and proving the contagion spillover of Bitcoin attention to carbon futures. Specifically, several models are adopted to investigate the explanatory and predictive abilities of Bitcoin attention to carbon futures. The results can be generalized as follows. First, Bitcoin attention Granger causes the variation of carbon futures. Second, Bitcoin attention shows a negative impact on carbon futures and an addition, an invert U-shaped connection exists. Third, the Bitcoin attention-based models can beat the commonly used historical average benchmark during out-of-sample forecasting both in statistical and economic levels. Fourth, we complete robustness checks to certify that the contagion spillover from Bitcoin attention to the pricing of carbon futures does exist. Finally, we prove the linear and non-linear impacts from Bitcoin attention to realized volatility of carbon futures. All the results prove that Bitcoin attention is an important pricing factor for carbon futures market.
This study aims to identify the most influential blockchain types for potential implementation areas in the transforming mobility ecosystem, considering application area-specific needs such as transparency, transaction speed, scalability, energy usage, security, and operating cost. The study demonstrated the hybrid blockchain suitability for most of the 13 distinguished mobility applications, while private and consortium blockchains are found applicable based on the needs of specific use cases. A public blockchain is only found suitable for two of the use cases. Proof of Authority and Proof of Stake matches well with most use cases, while Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance and Proof of Work could be suitable in particular.
The impacts of climate change, if left unchecked, will result in significant economic and ecological harm globally. While reducing carbon emissions in a sustainable manner may mitigate these effects, a concerted effort is required from all nations. Carbon markets present an opportunity to address emissions while promoting economic growth and technological advancement in carbon sequestration initiatives. However, the current state of the global voluntary carbon market is fragmented, with little uniformity and lacking transparency, which can undermine its effectiveness. To address these challenges, an industry-wide carbon sequestration standard, supported by a transparent blockchain protocol, should be implemented to enhance the existing voluntary carbon market structure in the United States. This new standard would require market participants to comply with uniform and transparent reporting protocols, mandating the reporting and disclosure of carbon inventory and methodology by carbon registries in the United States. The combination of a standardized carbon market and blockchain protocol will provide autonomous reporting of all carbon credit transactions, from creation to retirement. In conclusion, this proposal aims to enhance the voluntary carbon market through proper standardized emission offsetting, promoting economic growth and technological innovation, as the market scales over time.
Blockchain tokens have accumulated tremendous market value but remain highly controversial, given their price volatility and seemingly speculative nature. Ironically, this very characteristic can foster token retention as users wait for occasions of appreciation. In this paper, we conduct an empirical analysis with 58 tokens in two steps: first, an investigation of the drivers of user activity and token price volatility using a new blockchain token classification framework, searching for possible tokenomics links. Our findings suggest that there is an intrinsic relationship between the way tokens are used as a means of exchange and how token usage dynamics influence user engagement oppositely to market stability. Only some features, such as earning potential and voting rights, foster token-holding strategies, while only Ethereum ecosystem membership has positive effects on price volatility. Second, we analyze the direct relationship between price volatility and active users. Results show that, on average, a 10% increase in volatility is related to a decrease in active addresses ranging between 3.96% and 5.88%. The finding is supportive of the hypothesis that token price volatility may be treated as an opportunity to increase token retention.
Price-responsive demand and dynamic electricity price contracts can play a vital role in balancing renewable energy production and alleviating energy shortages such as those experienced in the European energy crisis. This study focuses on the implicit demand flexibility of residential consumers during extraordinarily high electricity prices in winter 2021/22 in Norway where most households have electric heating and spot price contracts. An econometric model is developed that compares the demand with pre-crisis levels, adjusts for factors influencing electricity consumption, such as outdoor temperature, and utilises a comprehensive dataset including hourly electricity demand data. The results reveal a quick response since the price signal was passed immediately to the customers and substantial energy savings of 11.4 % during winter. While the average household showed no significant short-term price response to daily or hourly price variations, several subgroups did. Particularly, households actively monitoring hourly prices via real-time information channels and those with automatic smart charging of electric cars showed higher load reductions in peak price hours and load shifting to low-price hours. Thus, the study concludes that households are able to respond to variable hourly electricity prices and suggests the promotion of spot price contracts to incentivise residential demand response.
Ming Li, Wenyu Zhang, Meng Yang, Hongyong Liu · 7 authors
In the process of green power trading, green power reflects the value of electricity energy and green environment, and green certificates aim to reduce the pressure of new energy subsidies and guide the concept of green electricity consumption. In order to promote the integration of new energy through market-oriented mechanisms, ensure the basic income of new energy projects, reflect the environmental value of green electricity, promote the sustainable development of the new energy industry, and meet the needs of users for green electricity at the same time, this paper constructs a blockchain-based green electricity environmental value authentication and circulation method by using the characteristics of blockchain centralization, distributed ledger, consensus mechanism, and smart contract.
Elena G. Popkova, Aleksei V. Bogoviz, Svetlana V. Lobova, Natalia G. Vovchenko · 5 authors
The digital economy's neo-industrialization self-accelerates resource consumption and wide automatization inevitably envisage a technological leap. The article contributes conceptually and empirically to a systemic vision of blockchain to sort out climate change challenges and clean energy transition and simultaneously increase the productivity and efficiency of good practices. This vision covers the popularization of ecological initiatives, waste reduction, organization of sustainable investments, control over responsibilities on both fighting and forecasting climate change and clean energy transition. By embracing the notion of blockchain as a problem-solving tool for climate change and clean energy transition, the paper draws and investigates the experiences of the 36 digitally developed and 25 digitally developing economies. It also examines the effectiveness of alternative practices in Industry 4.0. The paper's findings represent a systematic vision of implementing blockchain initiatives to solve climate change and clean energy transition. An energy-efficient model with a blockchain opens up massive opportunities for ecological monitoring, supports energy transition and ameliorates economic sustainability. Since the blockchain potential is not fully unlocked, a model expanding the use of blockchain in education to train green personnel and in science to support climate innovations is proposed.
Emanuele Pagone, A. L. Hart, Konstantinos Salonitis
Cryptocurrencies are a digital form of money based on the blockchain technology. Their relatively recent raise in popularity and use, together with the energy-intensive nature of some of their algorithms, has raised environmental concerns about growing energy consumption (and associated carbon dioxide emissions). This paper aims at comparing the environmental impact of the most common cryptocurrency (i.e., Bitcoin) and fiat currencies (i.e. coins, banknotes, credit and debit card networks). Such comparison is carried out assessing and analyzing the life cycle main phases of each currency in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. Results show that Bitcoin has a carbon footprint almost 4 to 5 times greater than the sum of all forms of traditional currency together in one year. Furthermore, environmental impact âhotspotsâ of fiat currency including raw material production of coins, transportation of banknotes and electric energy consumption of ATMs are identified. Finally, considering future scenarios and the sensitivity of various parameters on the results, some solutions are proposed to reduce the environmental impact of currencies.
Abstract Much of the media focus surrounding Bitcoin (BTC) has been on the âEâ (environmental) element of the ESG investing approach. Given the amount of electricity consumed by BTC mining, and the resulting large carbon emissions, BTC has faced substantial criticism of its overly negative environmental impact, which is critically reviewed in this article. This oneâsided discussion, however, ignores the âSâ (social) and âGâ (governance) elements entirely. To remedy that, we explore BTC's positive impact on the âSâ (user satisfaction, data protection and privacy, human rights, and criminal activity), and âGâ (accounting integrity and transparency, compensation, and principles of good governance) components.
Environmental externalities from cryptomining may be large, but have not been linked causally to mining incentives. We exploit daily variation in Bitcoin price as a natural experiment for an 86 megawatt coal-fired power plant with on-site cryptomining. We find that carbon emissions respond swiftly to mining incentives, with price elasticities of 0.69-0.71 in the short-run and 0.33-0.40 in the longer run. A $1 increase in Bitcoin price leads to $3.11-$6.79 in external damages from carbon emissions alone, well exceeding cryptomining's value added (using a $190 social cost of carbon, but ignoring increased local air pollution). As cryptomining requires ever more computing power to mine a given number of blocks, our study highlights both the revitalization of US fossil assets and the potential value of financial industry accounting standards that incorporate cryptomining externalities.
This study estimates the environmental impacts of Bitcoin mining. Employing a top-down measurement approach, this paper assesses the carbon footprint of Bitcoin mining in China from 2017 to 2021. The findings reveal that mining activities during this period contributed to a total of 77.84 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in China. By utilizing data at the provincial level, we find that the seasonal migration of Bitcoin mining pools will lead to regional power demand shocks in China. Additionally, this study predicts future carbon emissions from Bitcoin mining in China, projecting cumulative carbon dioxide emissions of 76.40 million tons and 722.18 million tons by 2030 and 2060 respectively, in the absence of any policy interventions. Based on these findings, this paper posits that governments worldwide should make efforts to restrict the carbon emissions from Bitcoin mining and opt for environmentally friendly technological methods to fundamentally alleviate Bitcoin's reliance on energy. The implication for central banks is that carbon emission should be taken into consideration when designing the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
This paper examines whether cryptocurrencies are hedging instruments for green and non-green energy instruments. We differantiate between cryptocurrencies with two types of consensus mechanisms, Proof-of-work and Proof-of-stake, which reflect the demand for energy used for the coins' confirmation. We obtained dynamic conditional correlations from SV models and apply them to calculate hedge ratios. Based on the sample from January 2019 till December 2022 we find that clean energy sources are better hedges for oil than clean or dirty cryptocurrencies due to high volatility of the latter instruments. Cryptocurrencies are better hedging instruments for oil than for clean energy assets. We also find evidence that investors in clean crytocurrencies are more environmentally aware than those investing in the dirty one.
In recent years, as cryptocurrency has been recognized by more people and the value of the cryptocurrency has increased, many people make money through mining. It leads to mining becoming popular but also creates serious environmental problems. Mining bitcoin will consume much electricity and thus emits more greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which has caused worldwide environmental issues. This paper will focus on figuring out that mining bitcoin will cause how much carbon emission damage in China during these years. The result of this research will provide the change in carbon emission with time and the prediction of the carbon emission trend caused by bitcoin mining in the future. This result of the article aims to focus the society and the government's attention on the damage mining bitcoin does to the environment and also provide suggestions on the measures the governments should take to reduce the unessential energy cost of bitcoin mining.