President Biden has ordered his administration to produce a report on the environmental costs and potential benefits of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technologies they rely on.
Biden’s request came yesterday as part of a sweeping executive order on the “responsible development of digital assets.” Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum are a growing part of the global financial system—and a major new source of planet-warming emissions.
Some 40 million Americans—or roughly 16 percent of the adult population—have used cryptocurrencies, according to the Biden administration. The total value of the loosely regulated cryptocurrency market topped $3 trillion last November but is now worth less than $2 trillion. Their paper should focus on “the connections between distributed ledger technology and short-, medium-, and long-term economic and energy transitions; the potential for these technologies to impede or advance efforts to tackle climate change at home and abroad; and the impacts these technologies have on the environment,” the order says.
Meanwhile, independent researchers have found that the annual emissions associated with bitcoin—the first and most valuable cryptocurrency—now rival those produced by the entire country of Greece .
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