Research

The Economic Impact of Bitcoin Mining

Summary: The Perryman Group's January 2025 report, The Economic Benefits of Bitcoin Mining, emphasizes Bitcoin mining's significant economic impact in the U.S., contributing $4.1 billion in gross product annually and supporting 31,000 jobs. Texas leads in mining activity, followed by Georgia and New York. The study highlights community benefits, including job creation and local investments, as well as grid stability support through flexible energy consumption. It also notes the industry's growing focus on environmental responsibility, particularly through renewable energy use. The report projects continued industry growth, reinforcing Bitcoin mining's role in economic development.

Get the report at texasblockchaincouncil.org/economicimpact

Bitcoin Mining Reduces Carbon Emissions

Summary: This Bitcoin Policy Institute report compares the energy impacts of AI and Bitcoin mining, using the metaphor of locusts (AI) and dung beetles (Bitcoin).

Key points:

Bitcoin mining acts like a "dung beetle": It's a flexible, scalable, portable, and price-sensitive electricity consumer that seeks out waste energy sources like flared gas or excess renewable energy. Miners curtail power usage between 5% and 31% of the time.
AI computing acts like a "locust": It's inflexible, location-dependent, scale-dependent, and price-insensitive, adding to peak demand and requiring more grid generation.
AI energy use could already be double that of Bitcoin: AI is growing at a faster rate.
Bitcoin mining reduces emissions through flexibility: The study found that Bitcoin miners reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 13.6 kilotons over three months by curtailing power usage. Extrapolating the results, this is equivalent to avoiding 4.4 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, or taking more than 956,500 cars off the road.
Policy recommendations: Encourage both Bitcoin mining and AI to adopt more flexible energy use patterns through appropriate rate structures and transmission/interconnection reform.

Get the report at the Bitcoin Policy Institute

How Bitcoin Mining Saved Texans $18 Billion

Summary: The article "How Bitcoin mining stabilized the grid, saved Texans $18 billion, and earned the ire of Berkshire Hathaway Energy" published by the Digital Assets Research Institute (DARI) on January 20, 2025, argues that Bitcoin mining is superior to gas peaker plants in stabilizing grids. It asserts that Bitcoin mining cuts costs, reduces emissions, and eliminates the necessity for expensive, unused fossil fuel infrastructure, ultimately saving Texans $18 billion.

Get the report at the Digital Asset Research Institute

Bitcoin Mining as a Flexible Load

Summary: This study focuses on Bitcoin mining as a demand response resource, highlighting its potential to enhance grid flexibility due to its interruptibility and quick response capabilities. It also discusses how Bitcoin mining can utilize stranded energy resources. The document acknowledges the initial perception of Bitcoin as an energy-intensive and wasteful technology and addresses criticisms of early research on Bitcoin's energy consumption.

Details:

Key Arguments:
Bitcoin mining can contribute to a sustainable global energy transformation.
It can enhance power system flexibility and stability.
It can efficiently manage energy production and electricity grids.
Bitcoin mining can help reduce methane emissions and support renewable energy infrastructure.
Technical Aspects: The paper explains Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism and how miners use specialized hardware (ASICs) to solve cryptographic challenges.
Challenges in Modeling Energy Use: The review discusses challenges in accurately estimating Bitcoin's energy consumption and emissions, including data availability, hardware mix, the location of mining pools, and carbon intensity assumptions. It criticizes studies that attribute generic energy mixes to miners, ignoring their diverse sourcing strategies.
Methane Use: The study highlights the innovative use of flared methane (a byproduct of oil extraction) by Bitcoin miners to generate electricity, turning a waste product into a valuable resource and reducing CO2e emissions.

Get the report at the Satoshi Action Fund

Common Claims about Bitcoin and Energy

Key points:

Fossil Fuel Plants: Refutes the claim that Bitcoin mining revives mothballed fossil fuel plants, citing examples like Greenidge and a Montana coal factory, explaining their situations have been misrepresented or changed.
Energy Consumption: Argues that comparing Bitcoin's energy use to entire countries is misleading. It also challenges the assumption that high energy use automatically equates to environmental damage, highlighting potential decarbonization benefits of Bitcoin mining, such as grid stabilization and methane mitigation.
Carbon Footprint: Criticizes the widely cited figure of Bitcoin's carbon footprint being over 60 Mt CO2e, pointing out flaws in the methodology used to calculate it.
Fossil Fuels vs. Sustainable Energy: States that the claim that most Bitcoin mining relies on fossil fuels/coal is outdated. The document asserts that over half of Bitcoin mining is now sustainable.
Proof of Stake: Dismisses the idea that Bitcoin should switch to Proof of Stake for environmental reasons, arguing it would undermine Bitcoin's fundamental value proposition and its potential environmental benefits.
Grid Strain: Addresses the argument that Bitcoin strains the grid, explaining that mining can incentivize renewable energy development and provide grid stability.
Energy/Water/eWaste per Transaction: Critiques the "per transaction" metric for measuring Bitcoin's resource use, arguing that it's not meaningful because mining's energy consumption isn't directly tied to transaction volume. It also highlights criticisms of Alex de Vries' (Digiconomist) research methodologies.

Get the report from Daniel Batten

Bitcoin Mining: The Key to Solving Renewable Energy Intermittency

Summary:

Renewable energy intermittency causes inefficiencies like curtailment and unused power due to the variability of solar and wind production.
Bitcoin mining offers a unique solution by serving as a flexible energy consumer, monetizing surplus or underutilized power, and helping stabilize the grid.
MARA’s mining operations integrate with renewable energy projects, optimizing energy use, encouraging new renewable infrastructure, and supporting grid power management for a more sustainable energy future.

Get the report from MARA.com

Bitcoin Mining & The Environment: The Positive Externalities