Morning Edition · Wednesday, November 11, 2026Published at 12:35 AM EST · New York

New Research Finds Bitcoin Mining Built Around Useful Work Could Increase Energy Use

A second paper proposes splitting block rewards to stop miners undercutting each other once fees replace the subsidy, as Canaan's rig sales fell 96% from a year earlier.

A paper posted to arXiv on November 11 argues that one proposed answer to Bitcoin's energy use could make the problem worse. Proof of useful work (PoUW) would have miners spend their computation on tasks with value outside the blockchain. B…