UK Bitcoin mining revenues soar, but China hogs 75% of ‘blood coin’ production

April 7, 2021 Coin Telegraph

U.K.-based Argo Blockchain just did record revenues, but a new report suggests 75% of Bitcoin mining still takes place in China, where “blood coin” is made.

United Kingdom-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Argo Blockchain just recorded the best quarter in its history, generating record revenues for three months straight. Yet despite the burgeoning cryptocurrency mining venture emerging in the west, the vast majority of Bitcoin production still takes place in China, where cheap, coal-powered electricity fuels an untold number of mining rigs.

A recent report by Nature.com revealed that as much as 75% of Bitcoin mining takes place in China — news which must fall hard on the ears of Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den investor Kevin O’Leary, who recently labeled all Bitcoin mined with the use of fossil fuels as “blood coin.”

The investor went so far as to say that from now on, the only Bitcoin he would purchase and deal with would be “clean coin” — that is, Bitcoin sourced from miners who utilize green or renewable energy.

O’Leary also claimed that institutional investors would soon begin to take notice of the environmental concerns involved when using Bitcoin and may soon begin to seek out “virgin” coins — i.e., those with their source of production already known and agreed upon beforehand.

According to researchers at Nature, China’s greenhouse gas emissions from Bitcoin mining alone will have exceeded the total emissions of both the Czech Republic and Qatar combined by 2024:

“We find that without any policy interventions, the annual energy consumption of the Bitcoin blockchain in China is expected to peak in 2024 at 296.59 Twh and generate 130.50 million metric tons of carbon emission correspondingly. Internationally, this emission output would exceed the total annualized greenhouse gas emission output of the Czech Republic and Qatar.”

Helped by cheap fossil fuel energy and their close proximity to the epicenter of mining hardware production in South East Asia, Bitcoin miners in China dominate the global landscape in terms of generating BTC.

“Due to the proximity to manufacturers of specialized hardware and access to cheap electricity, the majority of the mining process has been conducted in China as miners in the country account for more than 75% of the Bitcoin network’s hashing power,” states the report.

In related news from closer to home, Argo Blockchain just notched up record revenues in three consecutive months, as the firm achieved its best financial quarter to date. Using renewable energy sources in operational centers based in Canada, Argo mined 387 BTC in the first quarter of 2021, with revenues exceeding 13.4 million British pounds ($18.5 million). The firm reportedly held 764 BTC in total as of the end of March.

“I’m delighted that Argo has generated record mining revenue and profits for the third month in a row, making this quarter Argo’s best performing since the company’s inception,” said Argo chief executive Peter Wall.

Argo recently announced it would set up a clean energy Bitcoin mining pool powered only by renewable, hydroelectric sources.

The extent of “blood coin” production in China is hotly debated, not to mention, refuted, by many in the crypto space — and beyond. Recently, the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, claimed that 90% of Bitcoin was sourced via “dirty” energy sources.

No ‘blood coin’ for Kevin O’Leary as investor takes stand on Bitcoin energy consumption

April 5, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

“Blood coin,” “clean coin” and maybe even “virgin coin” will become commonplace phrases as Bitcoin’s environmental concerns continue to rage.

Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den personality Kevin O’Leary is taking a stand against what he terms “blood coin,” that being Bitcoin (BTC) mined in China. The investor declared that he would only deal with “clean coin” — coins mined using renewable energy — from now on and suggested other institutions were starting to do the same.

O’Leary took aim at the free-wheeling nature of Bitcoin production by pointing out that most other products in the world are manufactured according to institutional and regulatory compliance standards. O’Leary said, during an interview with CNBC:

“We have compliance on large institutions, we have covenants on how assets are made, whether carbon is burned, whether there are human rights involved, whether it’s made in China.”

Every example listed by O’Leary is one that applies to the world’s largest Bitcoin mining region — China, where cheap coal-fuelled electricity accounts for an estimated 50%–65% of the overall Bitcoin hash rate. No one wants to buy Bitcoin that originated from China, says O’Leary, who suggested institutions were beginning to seek “virgin” coins, which can be traced back to an environmentally ethical source.

“All of these issues have now come to the fore on Bitcoin. Institutions will not buy coin mined in China; coin mined using coal to burn for the electricity; coin mined in countries with sanctions on them. And all of a sudden there’s this huge demand for virgin coin with the provenance known,” said O’Leary.

Eventually, the zeitgeist will come to know two different types of Bitcoin: blood coin, and clean coin, O’Leary said:

“This is a really interesting problem, and I see over the next year or two, two kinds of coin: blood coin from China and clean coin mined sustainably in countries that use hydroelectricity, not coal.”

O’Leary said concerned would-be investors regularly ask him about the source of Bitcoin and whether its production met contemporary western standards. The investor said that from now on, he would only be dealing with clean Bitcoin.

Blockchain-based renewable energy marketplaces gain traction in 2021

April 3, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Blockchain projects focused on optimizing the energy sector are gaining traction as greater emphasis is placed on conservation and efficiency.

Concerns about energy production, resource consumption and its impact on the environment are one of the dominant topics of debate on the global stage. The intensive energy costs of mining Bitcoin and other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies are also frequently pointed to as a serious downside to the emerging asset class.

While environmental concerns and the cost to reward debate rages on, there is one group of cryptocurrency projects that has the goal of bringing blockchain technology to the global energy grids as a way to encourage renewable energy generation through a flexible marketplace that connects energy buyers and sellers.

Three energy-focused projects that have seen triple-digit gains since the beginning of 2021 are Energy Web Token (EWT), Power Ledger (POWR) and WePower (WPR).

EWT/USDT

Energy Web Token (EWT) is the operational token for the Energy Web Chain, an open-source enterprise blockchain designed to support and further application development for the energy sector.

According to the project’s website, the “Energy Web is accelerating a low-carbon, customer-centric electricity system by unleashing the potential of open-source, decentralized, digital technologies.”

The project launched in June of 2019 and has since grown to an extensive network of partners with some globally recognized companies including Volkswagen, Siemens and Hitachi.

Once fully developed and integrated, its virtual machine could help connect the different areas of the energy sector including grid operators, software developers and vendors.

One of the biggest price movers for EWT in 2021 came at the beginning of March when the token was listed on the U.S.-based Kraken cryptocurrency exchange.

*EWT/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:* *TradingView*

The subsequent announcement of a partnership with Volkswagon on March 4 and the release of the EasyBat battery compliance app on March 16 further helped provide a boost to the token which went on to establish a new all-time high of $19.85 on March 18.

POWR/USD

The Power Ledger platform was established in May 2016 with the goal of creating an operating system for new energy markets that is capable of trading renewable energy and environmental commodities on a local and global scale.

Based out of Australia, the project aims to utilize blockchain technology to create a system where every electrical resource or power device has a digital identity that is connected to a real-time market that facilitates the transactions between them.

POWR operates on the Ethereum (ETH) network as a peer-to-peer energy exchange platform and it utilizes a two-token system comprised of POWR and Sparkz to “ensure consistency across Power Ledger’s platform,” according to the project’s website.

Sparkz are stable tokens that are used when units of electricity (kWh) are bought and sold on Power Ledger’s platform.

Trading activity for POWR began to pick up at the end of January as discussions about renewable energy began to gain traction in the media.

*POWR/USD 4-hour chart. Source:* *TradingView*

The March 3 announcement of Power Ledger’s partnership with India's largest integrated power company Tata Power-DDL kicked off a price rally which resulted in POWR rallying to $0.504, its highest level since 2018.

WPR/USD

WePower is a blockchain-based green energy trading platform that connects “energy suppliers, corporate buyers and energy producers for easy, direct green energy transactions.”

According to the project’s website, the WePower platform is “the easiest way for companies of any size to buy green energy directly from local producers,” and the platform aims to make “corporate green energy procurement as easy as online shopping.”

WPR is an ERC-20 token that functions as a payment method on the WePower Network. It's used to standardize and increase the available liquidity in the existing energy investment system and should also help to reduce prices for network participants.

Trading activity and token began to pick up at the beginning of February when the project handed over its “first fully-featured Elemental platform to Mojo Power.

*WPR/USD 4-hour chart. Source:* *TradingView*

Following the launch of the Elemental retail marketplace on Feb. 1, the price of WPR surged from a low of $0.011 to a high of $0.05 on March 24 as conversations concerning renewable energy and sustainability in Europe and Australia took place.

Increased global attention on climate and energy production-related issues suggests that this niche slice of the crypto sector is ripe for further gains.

Projects utilizing blockchain technology to optimize global energy marketplaces are well-positioned to increase their market share as distributed ledger technology goes mainstream.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Energy Consumption