Dirty bitcoin

Bitcoin, for instance, can be sent from a particular address to others on its network. The illegal use of cryptocurrencies has long worried regulators and law enforcement, with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde both calling for tighter oversight last month.

Yet virtual money is subject to patchy regulation across the world and remains popular with criminals. The Chainalysis study only covered crime that originates on the blockchain ledger that underpins most cryptocurrencies, including scams, cyberheists, ransomware and darknet marketplaces used to buy contraband.

Also linked to the digital addresses were services connected to cryptocurrency exchanges. Some may have received illicit funds inadvertently due to lax compliance checks, the study said. The true scale of money laundering and other crime using cryptocurrencies — for example, where criminals use bitcoin to launder traditional cash — is not known. Some may have received illicit funds inadvertently due to lax compliance checks, the study said.

The true scale of money laundering and other crime using cryptocurrencies - for example where criminals use bitcoin to launder traditional cash - is not known. The United States, Russia and China received the highest volume of digital currency from illicit addresses, reflecting their high shares of crypto trading volumes, Chainalysis said.

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By Tom Wilson 3 Min Read. Still, it's not all eco-doom and gloom, and Tesla's bet on bitcoin comes amid growing attempts in the cryptocurrency industry to mitigate the environmental harm of mining. The entrance of big corporations into the crypto market could also boost incentives to produce "green bitcoin" using renewable energy, some sustainability experts say.

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They add that companies could buy carbon credits to compensate too. Yet in the shorter term, Tesla's disclosure of its bitcoin investment, made in a securities filing, could indirectly serve to exacerbate the environmental costs of mining. Other companies are likely to follow its lead by buying into the currency, investors and industry experts say. Greater demand, and higher prices, lead to more miners competing to solve puzzles in the fastest time to win coin, using increasingly powerful computers that need more energy.

1. Bitcoin’s ownership is highly concentrated.

Estimates on bitcoin's reliance on fossil fuels versus renewables vary, with detailed data on the bitcoin mining industry's energy mix hard to come by. Projects from Canada to Siberia are striving for ways to wean bitcoin mining away from fossil fuels, or at least to reduce its carbon footprint , and make the currency more palatable to mainstream investors.

SJ Oh, a former bitcoin trader based in Hong Kong and a self-professed "tree-hugger," was aware that his passion for the environment was somewhat at odds with his day job. So a year ago he co-founded Pow. Located in Labrador, Pow. Other projects aimed at reducing bitcoin's carbon impact include that run by an arm of Russian gas producer Gazprom in the Khanty-Mansi region of Siberia.

There, power generated by flare gas — a by-product from oil extraction usually burned off — is used for cryptocurrency mining. The process leaves a lower carbon footprint than coal power, said Gazprom Neft, the unit behind the project.

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In theory, blockchain analysis firms say, it is possible to track the source of bitcoin, raising the possibility that a premium could be charged for green bitcoin. Stronger climate change policies by governments around the world might also help.

As bitcoin goes up there will be more incentive to make investments in renewable sources of energy. Some bitcoin proponents note, meanwhile, that the existing financial system with its millions of employees and computers in air-conditioned offices uses large amounts of energy too. However it is early days for such green projects, and some ESG experts say bitcoin could have a tough task being accepted by mainstream investors en masse in the foreseeable future.

Safra Sarasin in Zurich. Some industry players and academics warn that the dominance of Chinese miners and lack of motivation to swap cheap fossil fuels for more expensive renewables means there are few quick fixes to the emissions problem.