How much power generation for bitcoin mining comes from renewable or non-carbon sources? A seemingly simple question that is, in fact, very complex to answer.

​

In an attempt to answer this question, pundits often cite top-down global estimates generated by black box models. While these estimates provide interesting sound bites to frame a discussion, they are not reliable data points that can be used to monitor the decarbonization of Bitcoin mining due to their vague assumptions and broad conclusions.

​