Facts and Misinformation About ‘Green Bitcoin,’ With Jonathan Koomey

How much electricity does bitcoin actually consume? Is it a lot, and compared to what? Is buying carbon offsets a good way to make your bitcoin “green”? Listen as Anna, Ben and Danny discuss these complicated topics with Jonathan Koomey.

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ABOUT

This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Jonathan Koomey, researcher and book author.

This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.

Koomey, the author of “Turning Numbers Into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving” and “Cold Cash, Cool Climate: Science-Based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs,” spent a lot of time studying and debunking the current narrative around bitcoin’s impact on the environment.

In 2019, he conducted a study for CoinCenter, titled “Estimating Bitcoin Electricity Use: A Beginner’s Guide,” where he separates real numbers from baseless assumptions. Koomey likes to run numbers and he’s indifferent to bitcoin, so he stays cool above the raging fire of the bitcoin climate debates.

How much electricity does bitcoin actually consume? Is it a lot, and compared to what? What are the most reliable sources of actual numbers? Is buying carbon offsets a good way to make your bitcoin “green”?

Listen as Anna, Ben and Danny discuss these complicated topics with Jonathan.

Jonathan Koomey’s Twitter handle is: @jgkoomey.

Materials mentioned in this episodes:

Jonathan Koomey’s research for CoinCenter: “Estimating Bitcoin Electricity Use: A Beginner’s Guide”
Jonathan Koomey’s books: “Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving” and “Cold Cash, Cool Climate: Science-Based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs”
Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI)
Danny Cullenward and David G. Victor, Making Climate Policy Work

Image credit: D-Keine /iStock/Getty Images Plus/ modified by Coindesk

HOSTS

Dan Ilett

Dan Ilett writes on tech, money and energy. He advises business on digital strategy and technology messaging for large deals. He is founder of Erbut - an advisory company - and Greenbang - a smart technology research company.

Anna Baydakova

Anna writes about blockchain projects and regulation with a special focus on Eastern Europe and Russia. She is especially excited about stories on privacy, cybercrime, sanctions policies and censorship resistance of decentralized technologies.
She graduated from the Saint Petersburg State University and the Higher School of Economics in Russia and got her Master's degree at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.
She joined CoinDesk after years of writing for various Russian media, including the leading political outlet Novaya Gazeta.
Anna owns BTC and an NFT of sentimental value.

Danny Nelson

Danny was CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.

Benjamin Schiller

Benjamin Schiller is CoinDesk's managing editor for features and opinion. Previously, he was editor-in-chief at BREAKER Magazine and a staff writer at Fast Company. He holds some ETH, BTC and LINK.

Danny Bradbury

Danny Bradbury has been a professional writer since 1989, and has worked freelance since 1994. He covers technology for publications such as the Guardian.

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