ARTICLE · 02 JULY 2021

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Why Not All Blockchain Has A Heavy Carbon Footprint

Osborne Clarke

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The carbon footprint of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has been making headlines recently.

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The carbon footprint of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has been making headlines recently. We explain what drives their energy consumption and consider alternative approaches.

Bitcoin and the many other coins that have been created using a similar structure have a huge appetite for energy, often compared to the annual consumption of a whole country. This high energy demand can translate into a huge carbon footprint. But the energy demand comes from the particular structure of these blockchain systems. It is possible to create cryptocurrencies or blockchain systems that have a much lower carbon footprint, and indeed examples of these already exist.

Security and bad actors

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