There have been longstanding concerns over the carbon footprint of Bitcoin mining, but the impact is not as bad as previously thought.

Bitcoin might just be a digital currency, but it takes quite a bit of energy to produce. Some researchers used to claim that Bitcoin mining alone could help push global temperatures over the 2 degree Celsius threshold. All cryptocurrencies consume a lot of energy through mining, but Bitcoin requires a particularly huge amount. That being said, the good news is that Bitcoin’s carbon footprint has been shown to be far less than expected.

The Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, which was put together by Digiconomist, estimated that Bitcoin mining produces 34.73 Megatonnes of carbon dioxide per year. That amount of consumption would put Bitcoin mining on a comparable level to the entire country of Denmark. Now, a new study has estimated the output at 17.29 Megatonnes for 2018. There have been other studies which have put the figure somewhere in between, typically much closer to the recent, lower estimate.

“Mining” is the process by which new units of a cryptocurrency are created. The process involves the use of hardware to solve complex mathematical problems. The process also requires massive amounts of electricity.