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Over the past few years cryptocurrencies have become a topic of research and debate (De Vries, 2018).Therefore, projected changes to the global energy sources available for cryptocurrency production and its environmental footprint should be considered in this breakthrough technology value assessment. Cryptocurrency is a relatively new combination of cryptology and currency in finance and is becoming more frequently used worldwide (Li et al., 2018).

Over the past few years cryptocurrencies have become a topic of research and
debate (De Vries, 2018). Cryptocurrency is a relatively new combination of cryptology
and currency in finance and is becoming more frequently used worldwide (Li et al.,
2018). The early adoption of its technology as well as accelerated growth has raised
many arguments in recent years. Public opinion is divided between praising benefits of
cryptocurrency’s financial capabilities, and claiming that the eventual impact of
increasing carbon dioxide emissions from Bitcoin mining alone could lead to a two
degree increase in global temperatures, should Bitcoin eventually replace other cashless
transactions (Mora et al., 2018).
Cryptocurrency’s exponential growth trajectory paired with its high energy￾dependent production systems, like the commonly used “Proof-of-Work” (PoW) scheme,
creates electricity usage problems currently and environmental dangers in the future.
PoW refers to the process by which computers mining Bitcoin prove the data in each
Bitcoin block; computers do this to define a math problem calculation in order to create a
new group of trustless transactions on the distributed ledger (Kugler, 2018). However,
according to “International Energy Agency’s” (IEA) energy projections, by 2040, the
global energy supply mix will shift from being currently dominated by fossil fuels to
renewable energy (IEA, 2018). Therefore, projected changes to the global energy sources
available for cryptocurrency production and its environmental footprint should be
considered in this breakthrough technology value assessment.