JAKARTA Until now Bitcoin is still the most popular cryptocurrency in the world. However, new research also shows that the environmental impact cannot be underestimated.

In a new study, academics in the US have presented the 'energy-related climate crash' of human activity in the past five years, including in Bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process of creating new Bitcoins by solving computing problems verifying transactions within the cryptocurrency.

Researchers say Bitcoin mining uses more energy per year than all of Austria but is more environmentally friendly than beef production or mining precious metals such as gold and copper.

Instead of being seen as similar to 'digital gold', Bitcoin should be compared to energy-intensive products such as beef, natural gas, and crude oil, experts say.

The new study has been led by researchers at the University of New Mexico and published today in Scientific Reports.

We found no evidence that Bitcoin mining is becoming more sustainable over time, said study author Professor Benjamin A. Jones at the University of New Mexico. On the contrary, our results show Bitcoin mining has become more dirty and more damaging to the climate over time. In short, Bitcoin's environmental footprint is moving in the wrong direction.

Blockchains, a technology that supports cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, uses a model called a 'proof-of-work' to validate new transactions.

The proof of work means blockchain is secured and verified by virtual miners around the world, who are racing to be the first to solve mathematical puzzles in exchange for money as a reward.

But proof-of-work involves substantial and expensive processing power, which only increases when more miners join the network. It's also a very slow process as verifying each transaction takes about 10 minutes.

According to Ian Silvera, the crypto boss at SEC Newgate consultant, who was not involved in the study stated that bitcoin has the largest energy consumption of all cryptocurrencies because it is the most widely used.

Bitcoin goes on a so-called proof of work consensus where a node should show its working evidence network to be rewarded with Bitcoin, such as handing over your homework at school and getting a teacher's grades, Silvera told MailOnline.

Due to Bitcoin's anti-inflation programming nature, computing tasks are increasingly difficult. Bitcoin miners react by buying more special computers (rigs) and eventually using more energy," he added.

According to New Mexico University researchers the environmental impact of Bitcoin has been documented, and despite knowing intensive energy, the level of damage to the climate is unclear,

In the study, they presented estimates of the climate damage economy from Bitcoin mining between January 2016 and December 2021.

They reported that in 2020 Bitcoin mining used 75.4 terawatt-hours of electricity (TWh), namely the use of electricity higher than all Austrian countries (69.9 TWh) or Portugal (48.4 TWh) that year.

Globally, mining, or production, Bitcoin uses large amounts of electricity, mostly from fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, said Professor Jones. This causes large amounts of air pollution and carbon emissions, which have a negative impact on our global climate and health.

We found several examples between 2016-2021 where Bitcoin is more climate-rusting than the true value of one Bitcoin. In other words, Bitcoin mining, in some cases, creates climate damage that exceeds the value of the coin. This is particularly troubling from a sustainable perspective, he added.

The authors assessed that Bitcoin's climate damage, according to three sustainability criteria, did climate damage forecasts increase over time, did Bitcoin's climate damage exceed market prices, and how climate damage was part of market prices compared to other sectors and commodities.

But they found that Bitcoin did not meet any of the three main sustainability criteria they scored.

According to the study, emissions equivalent to CO2 from power plants for Bitcoin mining have increased 126 times from 0.9 tons per coin in 2016 to 113 tons per coin in 2021.

Calculations show each Bitcoin mined in 2021 generated USD 11,314 in climate damage, with total global damage exceeding USD 12 billion between 2016 and 2021.

The damage peaked at 156 percent of the coin price in May 2020, pointing out that every USD 1 from the market value of Bitcoin generated caused $1.56 in global climate damage that month.

Finally, the author compared Bitcoin's climate damage to damage from industries and other products such as power generation from renewable and non-renewable sources, processing crude oil, production of agricultural meat, and mining of precious metals.

Climate damage caused by Bitcoin is an average of 35 percent of its market value between 2016 and 2021.

This part for Bitcoin is slightly smaller than climate damage as part of the value of the electricity market generated by natural gas (46 percent) and gasoline generated from crude oil (41 percent), but more than beef production (33 percent) and gold mining (4 percent).

The author concluded that significant changes including potential industrial regulation are needed to make Bitcoin mining sustainable.

In a broader effort to reduce climate change, the challenge of policy is to create a governance mechanism for emerging and decentralized industries, which includes energy-intensive POW cryptocurrencies, said study author Professor Robert Berrens.

Bitcoin is the world's largest cryptocurrency. In December 2021, it had a market cap of around $960 billion and about 41 percent of the global market share among cryptocurrencies.

Last year, Microsoft's billionaire founder Bill Gates highlighted the negative impact of Bitcoin mining on the environment.

Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to humanity, Gates said, speaking to The New York Times. "It's not a good climate issue."

A 2018 study published in Nature found that large computer farms used to mine Bitcoin could generate enough greenhouse gases to increase global temperature by 3.6°F (2°C) in less than three decades.

Another report published earlier this year also found that blockchains running cryptocurrencies are vulnerable to corruption and potentially stolen funds.