Tom Carreras is a markets reporter for CoinDesk. He holds BTC, ETH and SOL above CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.
A new research paper shows that bitcoin mining bans can actually backfire because they push miners to seek new jurisdictions that rely on fossil fuels to power their grid.
"Bitcoin mining has seen a rough couple of years from a PR perspective, with respect to its environmental credentials,” Juan Ignacio Ibañez, one of the paper’s contributors, told CoinDesk. Indeed, it all depends on what the source of energy is. A coal-powered electric grid will obviously produce more carbon emissions than a hydro-powered one. And mining bans “can have the unfortunate effect of driving the industry away from green sources of energy, hence increasing the global emissions from the network," Ibañez said.
But even within the same nation, the situation may vary from region to region. In the U.S., for example, a mining ban in Kentucky or Georgia would likely have a positive impact in terms of emissions, while bans in New York, Texas, the state of Washington, and California would be detrimental.Interestingly, a similar dynamic is playing out in China.
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