Abstract
With the increasing use of information technologies, their opportunities and risks to the environmental sustainability 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 study assesses the environmental burden of mining and supporting transactions in the cryptocurrency market in Russia using CO2-equivalent. For this 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 shows 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. 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.
Presenters
Olga ChereshniaSenior Researcher, Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russian Federation
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Blockchain, Environmental Sustainability, Global Climate Change, Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin
