Blockchain: A carbon-neutral facilitator or an environmental destroyer?

Analysing the effect of digital technology on carbon emissions is crucial for China to achieve carbon neutrality. This exploration utilises the bootstrap full- and sub-sample techniques to investigate the connection between the blockchain market and carbon neutrality, which further evidences whether blockchain is a carbon-neutral facilitator or an environmental destroyer. The conclusions present that the blockchain index (BCI) exerts positive and negative influences on the carbon neutral index (CNI), which is following the STIRPAT model. The positive effects suggest that the rapid progress of blockchain technology accelerates the process of carbon neutrality and vice versa, underlining that blockchain is a carbon-neutral facilitator in China. But this view could not be supported by the negative impacts, primarily due to the public health event and national carbon policy helping to raise CNI even during the periods with low BCI. Conversely, CNI has a positive effect on BCI, revealing that achieving carbon neutrality in China requires the support of blockchain technology, which in turn promotes the development of the blockchain market. Under the new round of scientific and technological revolution, practical implications for China can be put forward to achieve carbon neutrality based on the above conclusions.