N°24-51: Analysis of the Leading Bitcoin Forum with Large Language Models Highlights the Enduring and Substantial Carbon Footprint of Bitcoin

Bitcoin's substantial carbon footprint is widely acknowledged, though debates persist regarding its true scale. In this study, we present a novel methodology to quantify Bitcoin's carbon footprint, demonstrating a dramatic increase from 0.02 MtCOe in 2011 to 89 MtCO 2 e in 2023. By leveraging large language models to analyze Bitcoin Forum data, we accurately identify miners' hardware configurations, addressing the limitations of prior research that lacked empirical data. Our findings also highlight that Bitcoin mining is approaching cost-price parity, positioning it as a potentially enduring financial instrument.