My initial research plan was to focus on both the ethical and environmental impact of Cryptocurrency. At first, I didn’t really know how much data was out there for the environmental side of Crypto, however after looking thought the library I was surprised by how much was out there. This allowed for me to switch from examining both the ethical implications of Crypto to focusing solely on its environmental impacts. Making my search narrower will allow for me to go deeper and develop a deeper understanding of the current environmental impacts, as well as the plans going forward to help combat these potential issues if they exist.

This leads to two main questions I will focus on:

What are the impacts of Cryptocurrency on the environment?

How can Cryptocurrency help better the environment for the long term?

At this time, I’ve focused most of my research on finding potential sources as well as the process of narrowing my topic. While I have looked through specific articles to ensure successful research resources, I’ve yet to go in depth with them and gather any real research that could be impactful.

Most of my time was spent using the Forsyth Library to find supporting research. First of which is the ABI/INFORM Collection, a database focused on economics and business. Crypto is a big portion of both business and economics, this database has a ton of information about Cryptocurrencies and specifically the environmental impact. Next is the GREENR (Global Reference On Energy The Environment & Natural Resources), this database is focused on providing information about the environment and how economics influences it. The main benefit of this resource is it focuses specifically on the environment making research much more direct. Lastly is the Applied Science & Technology database. This focuses on the specifics of cryptocurrency mining and advancements in cryptocurrency. Which helps to provide a base understanding of where potential environmental impacts can occur as well as how they have overcome them in the past.