Stranded no more? Bitcoin miners could help solve Big Oil’s gas problem

March 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Can Bitcoin mining be part of the solution for greenhouse emissions rather than part of the problem?

The energy usage and environmental impact of Bitcoin (BTC) mining have been frowned upon and been under the scanner by various international financial institutions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mentions how Bitcoin mining consumes “vast amounts of computing power and electricity.”

Bitcoin mining is an energy-consuming process, as it is a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain network that involves providing cryptographic proof to the network that a quantified amount of a specific computational effort has been used. The information used to verify this is stored in a block to be accepted into the network by other participants.

Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world and the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, in February 2021 announced that the car manufacturing company will accept Bitcoin as payment for its products and services.

But, in May of that same year, Tesla discontinued its support for the acceptance of Bitcoin payments, citing the company’s concerns about the “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal.” This also led Musk to hail Dogecoin (DOGE) as a better means of payment than Bitcoin due to the high environmental cost of BTC transactions.

Energy usage trend over past few months is insane https://t.co/E6o9s87trw pic.twitter.com/bmv9wotwKe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2021

However, a new solution seems to be emerging that has the potential to address the narrative that has permeated the mainstream conscience.

Associated natural gas is a byproduct of oil drilling, the volume of which is often outweighed by the costs of getting it to a refiner, leaving it “stranded” at the well. Thus, it is often just burned off at the oil derrick, earning it the moniker “flare gas.”

On Feb. 17, CNBC reported that the oil giant ConocoPhillips is running a pilot program in Baken, North Dakota. Instead of burning associated gas, the company is selling it as fuel to third-party Bitcoin miners.

The idea of using associated gas to mine Bitcoin is not new. Back in 2019, Brent Whitehead and Matt Lohstroh started the company Giga Energy Solutions, which mines Bitcoin with electricity generated from such gas. The firm delivers a shipping container that is full of Bitcoin mining equipment to an oil well and then diverts the stranded natural gas into generators that convert the gas to electricity, using it to mine Bitcoin.

Crusoe Energy is another company that uses the energy from flare gas to mine Bitcoin. The firm has grown to become one of the biggest players in the space and has also received investment from one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Coinbase and Winklevoss Capital, a company founded by the Winklevoss twins, the founders of crypto exchange Gemini.

A report from Crusoe Energy Systems claimed that using this gas to mine Bitcoin reduces CO2-equivalent emissions by about 63% compared to the continued flaring of the gas.

Cointelegraph spoke with Ethan Vera, chief financial officer and chief operations officer at Viridi Funds, a company that offers crypto investments to Bitcoin miners, about the impact of ConocoPhilips involvement in the innovation.

Ver said, “While ConocoPhillips is one of the major energy companies that have publicly announced their entry into Bitcoin mining, there are many other energy companies that have already started the process of setting up mini-test sites. If the economics of Bitcoin mining increase and total mining revenue on a USD basis grows, many of the large energy producers will look to enter the space in a bigger way.”

Energy impact of Bitcoin mining could be overrated

As per the University of Cambridge’s Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index metrics, the estimated power demand for the Bitcoin network is 15.57 GW (GigaWatts) which annualizes at 136.48 TerraWatt hours (TWh). The look at historical data of power demand for the network reveals that this demand is continuously increasing through the years as the network grows.

Despite this increase in demand for power, the environmental impact could be overrated. A report from CoinShares released in January this year attempted to gauge the carbon emissions caused by Bitcoin mining. Contrary to popular belief, the report’s findings suggest that Bitcoin mining only accounts for 0.08% of the world’s carbon dioxide, or CO2, production. The report found that the network emitted 42 megatons (Mt) (1Mt = 1 million tons) of CO2 in 2021 out of the world’s total emissions of 49,360 Mts of CO2.

Sam Tabar, chief security officer of Bit Digital, a publicly-traded Bitcoin mining company, told Cointelegraph:

“The environmental impact of Bitcoin mining is massively exaggerated by traditional financial authorities (IMF, etc.) because they know they can divide a new counterculture movement by using fake environmental arguments. They are trying to gaslight us against each other. They gaslight the world with fake green arguments, and I understand why: They don’t want to lose influence over the levers of power of a system that only works for the elite.”

In this regard, Vera mentioned that gauging the environmental impact of Bitcoin is a highly nuanced topic and is one that can’t simply be explained by the energy consumed metric. He said that “In many cases, Bitcoin mining incentivizes the development of renewable energy which will have profound impacts on long-term energy infrastructure and environmental impact.”

Oil giants could lead the change to make Bitcoin green

Considering that using stranded natural gas to mine Bitcoin could reduce the net carbon emissions of mining, as well as reduce emissions from flare gas, other major oil companies could soon jump on the opportunity, especially as governments and regulators have been cracking down on gas flaring.

In November 2020, Colorado regulators gave the initial okay to ban gas flaring in order to curb methane pollution.

Regulators in the state of New Mexico imposed a rule in March 2021 that requires oil operators to gradually eliminate gas flaring. The rule dictates that 98% of the nature-stranded gas should be captured by April 2022 instead of flaring.

However, such decisions are highly difficult to pass in a country where both sides of the government are heavily dependent on lobbying from big oil companies. In October 2021, Bloomberg reported that President Biden’s crackdown on methane emitters is set to stop short of imposing a ban on flaring.

An outright ban on gas flaring would be good news for the Bitcoin mining industry as that oil producers would have either of two options. First, to reduce the production output of oil which wouldn’t be economically viable. Or, second, utilize excess stranded natural gas on-site, which is where Bitcoin miners could step in to create synergies with big oil companies like ExxonMobil, British Petroleum (BP), Chevron or Valero Energy.

Vera stated that “With high oil prices, the majority of these producers are turning to utilize the stranded gas on-site such as Bitcoin mining, instead of burning it up. We expect the trend to continue in the future as more governments regulate the ability for oil companies to flare excess gas.”

The World Bank also has its own initiative to help reduce gas flaring around the world. The Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR) is a multi-donor trust fund that comprises governments, oil companies and multinational companies that are committed to reducing gas flaring. Bitcoin mining pools and companies could enter collaborations with this trust fund to further this initiative.

However, oil companies could have a two-faced approach to the issue at hand, thus, raising questions on their intentions. For example, in 2020, BP urged regulators in Texas to ban the routine flaring of natural gas. But, in January 2021, the Texas Railroad Commission passed 121 of the company’s requests for flaring.

With regulators and governments around the world cracking down on gas flaring, the Bitcoin mining industry has an opportunity to reduce the CO2 emissions and methane pollution in the atmosphere. Vera concluded on this synergy, stating that “Bitcoin miners are a natural partner to all energy producers including renewable and oil and gas. Bitcoin mining improves the ability for these companies to manage and utilize their resources in the most profitable way.”

Miners that hodl the most Bitcoin are ‘relentlessly expanding’

March 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

According to a series of mining metrics, not only are miners holding hard but they’re also dramatically increasing their hash rate.

Bitcoin (BTC) miners are holding more and more Bitcoin while “relentlessly expanding” their operations in 2022.

A report by Arcane Research indicates that publicly listed Bitcoin miners are “constantly looking for expansion opportunities,” as they “plan to increase hashrate faster than the whole network in 2022.”

*Publicly listed Bitcoin miners projected hashrates. Source: Arcane Research*

44.95% of the global hash rate derives from North American miners, according to the latest figures from the Cambridge Bitcoin electricity consumption index. With the massive projected increases in target hash rate among the publicly traded Bitcoin miners, it‘s “likely to increase.”

Jaran Mellerud, an analyst for Arcane Research, told Cointelegraph that “most publicly listed miners pursue a hodl strategy, doing their best to keep as much they can of their mined Bitcoin.”

“This hodl strategy enables them to serve as Bitcoin investment vehicles for investors who want to own bitcoin indirectly through an investment structure.”

Whit Gibbs, the founder and CEO of Compass Mining, explained to Cointelegraph that “public mining companies definitely have an advantage when it comes to hodling Bitcoin because they have access to the capital markets.”

“They don‘t need to liquidate their Bitcoin in order to buy more machines, increase their rack space, etc. They‘re able to go to the capital markets and get that money to continue to expand. So, they‘re able to hold large positions in Bitcoin.”

Some of the largest miners hold huge amounts of Bitcoin, Gibbs adds, ”it‘s crazy how much some of them are holding.” As published on BitcoinTreasuries, Bitcoin mining company Marathon hold the third-largest amount of Bitcoin among businesses worldwide, right behind Tesla and MicroStrategy.

*Bitcoin holdings of publicly listed Bitcoin miners. Source: Arcane Research*

Since January 2021, miners’ reserves have been steadily increasing, reflective of their HODL strategy. Gibbs suggests that the publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies are “taking more of a bullish approach to Bitcoin.”

“The companies are looking at Bitcoin on their balance sheet as a way to drive up their market valuations.”

*Miners' reserves in blue are steadily increasing. Source: CryptoQuant*

Mellerud also understands that Bitcoin mining stocks are increasingly popular in legacy financial markets. “The demand for Bitcoin investment vehicles is high, particularly in the U.S. since the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund market is immature.” The Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) saga is an Achilles heel to the network, as successive Bitcoin ETF applications have been rejected.

While market interest for Bitcoin miners swells, Mellerud sums up why the mining business model is attractive and effective, echoing Gibbs‘ comments:

“Miners are some of the biggest Bitcoin bulls out there, and they utilize the highly developed equity and debt markets in the U.S. to raise money to pay for their expansions and operating expenses, allowing them to keep the Bitcoin they mine.”

Bitcoin Miner Hut 8, for example, recently posted record revenues, with its overall BTC holdings surging by 100%. 2022 may not be the year of the bull, but it‘s certainly a good time to publicly mine the orange coin.

Mining worldwide: Where should crypto miners go in a changing landscape?

February 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Price

Which nations are the new harbors of miners, and where can Ether and Bitcoin be successfully — and profitably — mined in 2022?

One of the main themes among the crypto community in 2021 was China’s aggressive policy toward mining, which led to a complete ban on such activities in September.

While mining as a type of financial activity has not gone away and is unlikely to disappear, Chinese cryptocurrency miners had to look for a new place to set up shop. Many of them moved to the United States — the world’s new mining mecca — while some left to Scandinavia and others to nearby Kazakhstan, with its cheap electricity.

Mining activities can’t stay under the radar forever, and governments around the world have begun to raise concerns over electricity capacity and power outages.

Erik Thedéen, vice-chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority — who also serves as director general of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority — has called for a ban on mining proof-of-work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) in Europe.

As jurisdictions around the world begin to crack down on mining-related activities, it begs the question: “Where is it still profitable, and legally favorable, to mine crypto?”

North America

It’s no secret that the U.S. is the main country for crypto mining, particularly in the Lone Star State, Texas. After the exodus from China, crypto miners and billions of dollars of capital flooded into the southern state. This is largely due to state policy, with Governor Greg Abbott having actively supported the Bitcoin industry.

Philip Salter, CEO of crypto mining firm Genesis Digital Assets, told Cointelegraph the reason the state became a popular destination for miners:

“The most prominent location for miners worldwide may be Texas right now. Its huge amounts of wind and solar power are causing a surplus of affordable energy. Privately owned power grids ensure a fast path for new projects, without being hindered by slow bureaucracy. The benefits of Texas aren’t so new though. Miners started building there already years ago, even if not as aggressively as now.”

Texas has experienced its own problems with electricity infrastructure, with massive blackouts affecting much of the state in 2021 amid unseasonable winter storms. But miners there have been relatively understanding about electricity consumption, and large companies have even periodically turned off equipment to give priority to residential consumers and critical infrastructure.

America’s northern neighbor, Canada, has also been actively attracting mining companies. Recently, authorities in Alberta invited cryptocurrency miners to the province, touting its cheap electricity prices thanks to an abundance of local natural gas.

Latin America

Latin American countries have been expending considerable effort to attract miners, with El Salvador, in particular, showing a favorable attitude toward mining. The country was the first in the world to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. The Salvadoran government has not hesitated to directly invest in Bitcoin and even plans to build a city dedicated to the preeminent cryptocurrency where electricity to mine BTC will reportedly come from volcano-fired geothermal plants.

Costa Rica is also gradually becoming mining-friendly due to low electricity prices. Thanks to mining, a hydroelectric power plant that was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic has now reopened.

Large crypto companies have also begun to set up operations in Costa Rica. Chia Network, a blockchain network created by BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen, has agreed to provide technical services for Costa Rica’s national climate change initiatives.

Argentina was very popular among miners until the government decided recently to cut subsidies for miners and raise taxes on mining activities. So far, these financial policy changes for mining are limited to the province of Tierra del Fuego, which is known for its cold climate. Nevertheless, Argentina remains a good place for mining farms even after the electricity price increases, keeping in mind the energy crisis in competing regions like Europe.

Mining is still possible in Europe

Crypto mining operations in Europe remain relatively limited, as high electricity prices amid the energy crisis and a generally skeptical attitude toward cryptocurrencies from regulators make crypto firms think twice before locating to the continent.

Indeed, the Nordic nation of Iceland was previously a hotspot for Bitcoin mining, with its subarctic volcanic landscape providing cheap electricity and low cooling costs for mining farms.

*A mining farm of Genesis Mining in Iceland. Source: Marco Krohn.*

However, late last year, the country’s national electrical company, Landsvirkjun, cut the amount of power it would provide to energy-intensive industries like Bitcoin mining and aluminum smelting, citing capacity concerns.

Despite limitations on the continent, there are a few spots in Europe where miners have decided to set up shop where geography and climate play an important factor in attracting business.

In Georgia, located in the Caucasus region, the large number of hydroelectric power plants built during the country’s time as a Soviet republic — along with its relatively modest population — have provided a large amount of cheap electricity for miners.

Major crypto mining companies have already set up operations in the country. Back in 2014, Dutch mining company Bitfury opened its first data center, with a draw of 20 megawatts, in the eastern Georgian city of Gori.

The success of Bitfury opened the eyes of many Georgians who actively began to acquire powerful video cards and create their own small crypto mining farms. According to the World Bank, 5% of the Georgian population was engaged in crypto mining in 2018.

It should also be noted that Russia remains an epicenter for crypto mining thanks to low energy costs and a cold climate.

Andrei Loboda, public relations director of BitRiver — the largest cryptocurrency mining colocation services provider in Russia — shared with Cointelegraph some specific regions where it will be convenient for miners to work if the Russian government becomes more supportive of cryptocurrencies:

“According to BitRiver, today, about 300,000 individuals are engaged in mining Bitcoin alone in the Russian Federation. Our company performs energy-intensive, high-speed computing in data centers in a number of the Russian Federation regions, including the Irkutsk Region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The green and digital technologies that we implement in our work as part of the digital energy transition have already given an additional impetus to the development of the regions.”

Is mining worth it?

Geography is a critical element for miners to consider, be it for electricity and cooling costs or regulatory concerns. However, there are some expenses, like hardware, that miners will carry with them wherever they go.

With demand for mining equipment on the rise and a recent slump in the markets after 2021’s bull run, when is mining worth it with all the hardware costs?

*A homemade Bitcoin mining rig with GPUs. Source: Bitcoin Wiki.*

2021 was the most profitable year for mining Ether (ETH) with graphics processing units since 2016. This is not surprising, as Ether’s price more than quadrupled last year. But the main issue for miners is electricity and equipment expenses, and the price of the latter is growing rapidly.

Nevertheless, while the profitability of Ether mining remains high, the payoff period for equipment purchases is growing, partly due to the London hard fork in August 2021 that reduced the payout for each block mined from 8–20 ETH to 2 ETH. Another negative factor for miners will be the much-anticipated transition of the Ethereum blockchain to a proof-of-stake consensus, after which they will have to start mining altcoins or recertify as stakers on the network.

The Bitcoin network’s mining difficulty recently hit an all-time high despite the strong decrease in BTC’s price in January, which hit a monthly low of around $34,300.

It is surprising that, against this background, the cost of ASICs didn’t fall. At the same time, the ASIC payoff period this year is a little over 1,000 days, or almost three years. Not everyone can afford to carry those expenses for such a long time.

There are a multitude of changing factors that miners have to take into consideration, but one thing is clear: Cryptocurrency mining is a flexible, adaptive industry, and firms have proven they are willing to relocate to more beneficial locations should their current one prove less than ideal.

Living on a volcano: The outlook of El Salvador’s crypto mining industry

February 10, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

El Salvador’s crypto mining potential is there but it will take some time and effort to come to fruition

El Salvador, the first nation to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender, has recently announced the relaunch of its wallet app Chivo, which is supposed to patch the previous version’s stability and scalability issues. The update is welcomed news for the Central American country’s crypto experiment, which faced some hurdles and harsh criticism over the last few months. While much of the observers’ attention has been focused on aspects such as retail adoption of crypto and geopolitical implications of Bitcoin’s legal status in El Salvador, the progress of the nation’s mining industry toward achieving President Bukele’s moonshot vision has been less discussed lately. Here’s what the current prospects of El Salvador’s mining industry look like.

“Endless” possibilities

In October 2021, when El Salvador had already become the world’s first country to adopt Bitcoin, one of its main energy sector officials shared his optimistic view on the prospects of crypto mining in the country.

President of the state-run Lempa River Hydroelectric Executive Commission Daniel Alvarez told journalists about the “endless possibilities” to produce energy via hydroelectric, solar, wind and tidal power plants with “willpower” being the only component needed to succeed. “We don’t spend resources that contaminate the environment, we don’t depend on oil, we don’t depend on natural gas, on any resource that isn’t renewable,” he also remarked.

El Salvador’s current energy capacity, however, is rather modest. Reportedly, it has only two geothermal power plants — one at the base of the Tecapa volcano and one in Ahuachapan — that already contribute to Bitcoin mining. Together, they generate slightly under 200 megawatts of electric power and only one of them allocates 1.5 megawatts — the only known figure to date — to Bitcoin mining. Hence, the El Salvador leadership’s ambitions would clearly demand massive developments of new facilities. It looks like they definitely have some ideas in that department.

The Bitcoin city megaproject

In November 2021, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced his plans to build a new Bitcoin city. The settlement is to be constructed in a ‘“coin shape” at the base of the Conchagua volcano whose geothermal energy would be used to mine Bitcoin. In Bukele’s vision, it should become a perfect combination of glittering neon lights and near absence of taxation:

“Residential areas, commercial areas, services, museums, entertainment, bars, restaurants, airport, port, rail — everything devoted to Bitcoin.”

Keeping up with the regional traditions, this ambitious construction project is to be backed by a bold financial scheme — $1 billion in bonds — half of which would go directly to city construction and the other one would be invested in Bitcoin. The bonds are supposed to last 10 years and pay 6.5% annual interest to their holders. Any investor with a bond share upwards of $100,000 ould qualify for Salvadoran citizenship.

The scheme is backed up by major crypto industry players. Canada-based blockchain technology enterprise Blockstream is responsible for issuing the bonds in the form of tokenized securities on Liquid blockchain while Bitfinex would host them on its platform. According to Samson Mow, chief strategic officer of Blockstram, by the end of the bond's 10th year, its annual percentage yield will sit at 146% level, as, according to his forecast, BTC price would reach the $1 million mark within five years. That would make El Salvador “the financial center of the world” and “the Singapore of Latin America.”

The many challenges

There is a host of issues accompanying the Salvadoran Bitcoin turn: political backlash against President Bukele and his initiatives, pressure from the IMF and other international actors and the early troubles of the Chivo app. When it comes to plans of massively beefing up the country’s mining infrastructure, there is a number of stumbling blocks as well.

The Bitcoin city announcement saw the existing fiat-denominated El Salvador bonds plummet and raised a number of questions from investment experts, the main one being, “Why buy Bitcoin-backed Salvadoran bonds if you could just buy Bitcoin?” Some pointed out that the country already has a record of failed charter city plans, as well as the fact that the Conchagua volcano, which is supposed to power the city and its BTC mining operations, has recently shown some noticeable seismic activity.

Worse, still, some critics argue that El Salvador’s overall energy profile does not offer great crypto mining potential. One concern is that the country still has to import around 20% of its energy mainly from Honduras and Guatemala. According to some estimates, current industrial energy rates in El Salvador range from $.13 to $.15 per kilowatt-hour while the global average price of Bitcoin mining is around $.05 per kilowatt-hour.

The data from the recent study by DEKIS Research group at the University of Avila ranks El Salvador as number 73 in the global crypto mining potential ranking — while 35% of energy comes from renewable sources. For example, in the United States, this proportion stands at around 7.5%. The levels of national R&D expenditure, human capital index and energy prices put El Salvador closer to the least sustainable countries for mining operations.

Pivoting to renewables

Despite some obvious limitations, the notion of El Salvador’s “endless possibilities” when it comes to mining is not a mere bravado. Like many other Latin American nations, El Salvador possesses a hefty, if yet unrealized, the potential for renewable energy. Talking to Cointelegraph, Philip Ng, vice president of corporate development at green data centers provider Soluna Computing, emphasized the global trend in the direction of making renewable energy more accessible, also noting that it should benefit countries like El Salvador:

Renewable energy is now astonishingly affordable, with the cost to build wind falling 72% since 2009 and solar falling 90% over the same period [...] Renewable technologies offer a profound opportunity for South American power markets. Renewable energy assets can be built at a significantly smaller scale when compared with conventional energy. The result is that grids no longer face large transmission and infrastructure buildout costs when trying to add cheap and clean power.

Ng offered the example of Chile, whose recent investments in renewable energy have allowed the country to transition from a net importer of carbon fuels to an exporter of renewable energy. A crucial step in triggering such transition is demand, which is not an easy thing to grow in countries with relatively small populations.

One solution could be to establish a “consumer of last resort,” or a layer of users that would ensure that power producers have a diversified revenue stream and don’t have to rely solely on the utilities. Bitcoin miners could become such a class of consumers. Establishing such an arrangement would also mean that power producers never have to curtail their excess production. A case in point is Kenya, where hydroelectric plants share excess renewable energy with crypto mining facilities.

Responding to Cointelegraph's request, a Blockstream spokesperson said that an announcement regarding the status of El Salvador’s Bitcoin bonds project will follow at some point in Q1 2022. It is yet to be seen if Nayib Bukele’s exotic aspiration to build a coin-shaped city at the foot of a volcano will materialize in a pragmatic strategy that attracts foreign investments. But, even today it is clear that getting ahead in the renewable energy race will be vital for the success of El Salvador’s massive crypto mining projects.

Report crowns Solana for using least energy per transaction, but there’s a catch

February 3, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Despite Solana’s low power consumption per transaction, the PoS network still uses much energy overall compared to other PoS protocols.

Solana (SOL), one of the most active proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains, appears to be a PoS protocol consuming the lowest amount of electricity per transaction, according to a new report.

The Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI), a research startup focused on the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies, released on Wednesday a new report calculating the electricity consumption and carbon footprint of major PoS blockchains.

The CCRI specifically analyzed PoS networks including Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, Avalanche, Algorand and Tezos.

According to the CCRI’s findings, the Solana blockchain consumed 0.166 watt-hours (Wh) of electricity per transaction within the study, becoming the most energy-efficient PoS protocol in terms of energy used per transaction among the six analyzed networks.

Cardano, a PoS network that has the biggest market capitalization at the time of writing, consumes the biggest amount of electricity per transaction, which is 52 Wh, according to the report. However, when it comes to a "per-node" comparison, Cardano uses the least amount of electricity per node, the CCRI found.

*Electricity consumption per transaction for PoS systems and Visa. Source: CCRI*

“This metric depends on the amount of transactions taking place on the respective blockchain, also the overall electricity consumption per transaction further depends on the number of nodes connected to the respective network. Generally, these numbers are expected to go down with an increase in the transaction rate, regardless which blockchain is in use,” the study reads.

Despite Solana’s low energy consumption per transaction, the PoS protocol still consumes a lot of energy due to the network’s massive usage, compared to other PoS networks. According to the CCRI’s study, the Solana blockchain emits 934 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, compared to 33 tonnes for Polkadot.

At the time of writing, Solana is the most-traded PoS protocol, with $2.9 billion in daily trading volumes, while Polkadot has about $900,000 in daily trading volumes, according to data from CoinGecko.

*Yearly carbon footprint of PoS networks compared to a roundtrip flight in business class. Source: CCRI*

Unlike major blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which use mining operations to confirm transactions based on a proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism, PoS blockchains rely on users simply locking up tokens. As PoS blockchains do not need extra energy from miners in order to validate transactions, they are considered as being more energy efficient.

As previously reported, many global financial regulators have used PoW’s high energy consumption rates as yet another reason to ban the use of cryptocurrencies like BTC. They would probably also want to ban global banks as the traditional banking system was reportedly consuming twice more energy than the entire Bitcoin network as of March 2021.

Bitcoin Mining Report Shows Network’s Emissions Account for 0.08% of the World’s CO2

February 2, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Fossils vs. Renewables, PoW vs. PoS: Key policy issues around crypto mining in the U.S.

January 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

A recent meetup on the Capitol Hill highlighted several key debates that will define the mining industry’s development in the years to come.

On Jan. 27, a group of eight U.S. lawmakers, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, sent letters to the world’s six largest Bitcoin mining companies, demanding to reveal the detailed data on their electricity consumption. This isn’t the first time Senator Warren requested this information from a mining operation — last month a similar letter was sent to Greenidge Generation, which uses a natural gas plant to power its facility.

These moves highlight the increasing regulatory pressure on crypto mining businesses in the United States. But, as last week’s Congress hearing showed, the growing scrutiny might turn out to be an opportunity to align the mining sector’s development with the broader political push for clean energy. Here are some of the key themes around crypto mining that have captured the lawmakers’ attention and that will likely inform the intensifying policy conversation.

Total energy consumption

A cornerstone of any environmental critique of Bitcoin and crypto in general, the question of how much energy cryptocurrency mining consumes was expectedly prominent at the hearing. In a 2018 paper published in the prestigious journal Nature, a group of researchers predicted that Bitcoin’s growth could singlehandedly push global emissions above 2 degrees Celsius within less than three decades — not a good look given the international community’s stated mission to prevent the planet’s temperature rise of the exactly same magnitude.

Cambridge University Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index set the tone of comparing the yearly Bitcoin-driven consumption to various nation’s levels — and as for now, with its 131.1 TWh per year the most popular cryptocurrency consumes more energy than Ukraine (124.5 TWh) or Norway (124.3), according to this source. The current estimate of Ethereum’s annualized energy footprint by Digiconimist stands at around 73.19 TWh.

None of the most widely cited estimates is beyond dispute, as the recent fact-check report by Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) suggests. It cited three separate articles from the peer-reviewed Nature Climate Change journal, one of them debunking the 2 degrees argument as “fundamentally flawed” and criticizing its methodology.

Crypto proponents prefer to compare Bitcoin energy consumption not to nations, but to other industries — in that case, according to the BPI report, BTC’s 0.27% of global energy consumption is less than that of gold mining, although the Cambridge Index sets the two equal.

Fossils vs renewables

In the context of the ever-growing political pressure on energy consumption, the search for a sustainable energy framework becomes crucial for any industry that wants to flourish in the digital age.

The critics of the crypto mining industry have recently highlighted several instances of mining operations relaunching the existing fossil power plants. The authors of the letter that some 70 NGOs sent to Congress ahead of the crypto mining hearing called the legislators’ attention to several such instances, like the relaunch of coal waste plants in Pennsylvania by Stronghold Digital Mining and the partnership between Marathon Digital and coal-fired plants in Montana.

There is also evidence that these are not the only American companies buying up the old ‘“dirty energy” plants to feed their mining operations — the pattern is observed from Texas to Missouri. At the Congress hearing, it was Steve Wright, a former general manager of Chelan County’s in Washington public utility district, who talked at length about the problem. He explained that miners’ interst in dormant fossil facilities is driven by a simple market mechanism: As renewable energy prices (on the West Coast specifically) grow in line with increasing demand, coal prices drop due to investors’ flight ahead of the upcoming 2025 ban on any coal usage in Washington state.

As Represenatives kept returning to this issue over the course of the hearing, it became clear that the tension between the use of fossil fuels for crypto mining and the industry’s potential shift to renewable energy sources is at the center of policymakers’ thinking on the issue. Witness John Belizaire, CEO of green data centers developer Soluna Computing, argued that there exist scenarios under which crypto mining can shift from a being “dirty” energy concern to a vehicle complementing and empowering the renewable energy sector.

Belizaire’s core argument is that computation-intensive tasks like Bitcoin (BTC) mining can be powered by the recaptured excessive (or, in the industry terms, “curtailed”) energy otherwise wasted by clean power plants. According to him, solar and wind farms waste up to 30% of generated energy due to incompatibilities with the old energy grids. Belizaire also addressed the problem of energy shortages allegedly driven by crypto miners, highlighting the fact that the kind of computations that miners execute can be stopped at any moment on-demand.

For now, the problem of “dirty mining” is here to stay simply due to the U.S. level of electricity production from renewable sources being below 7.5%. A recent study by DEKIS Research group at the University of Avila ranks the United States as the 25th country in the world in terms of its sustainable mining potential, with Denmark (65% of energy generated from renewables) and Germany (26%) leading the chart.

Nevertheless, America remains a safe zone for mining, while many other nations' electrical grids are less suited to handle additional load. With a reasonable regulatory framework in place, this could be a massive competitive advantage, laying the groundwork for the U.S. to become a global mining haven. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Belizaire explained that there are certain policy steps that can nudge crypto miners to “go green.” He listed a number of specific measures: “Extended tax credits and special investment tax credits for miners that use green energy and serve as flexible load, along with DOE loan guarantee that is extended to encourage the development of green crypto mining.”

PoW vs. PoS

Any discussion of a possible alliance between crypto mining and green energy tends to bump into a Proof of Work (PoW) versus Proof of Stake (PoS) debate, and the recent hearing was not an exception. It was Cornell professor Ari Juels who repeatedly stated that “Bitcoin does not equal blockchain,” in the sense that the energy-intensive PoW consensus mechanism is not the only way to enjoy the decentralization advantages of crypto.

And, of course, the number one alternative on the table is PoS consensus mechanism that will possibly be adopted by the Ethereum ecosystem and is currently used in a large number of new blockchain projects. It is also central to the development of smart contract-based technologies such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Juels’ statements reflect the general pressure that is building up on PoW. Earlier this month, Erik Thedéen, vice chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), proposed an outright ban on PoW mining in the EU and called for transitioning to PoS due to its lower energy profile.

In the U.S., dominating the global Bitcoin mining market with the 35% share, the issue is way more pressing than in Thedeen's native Sweden, where only about 1.16% of BTC is mined. However, the real problem lies in the Asia-Pacific region, where, according to the The Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study, almost 50% of electricity to Proof-of-Work miners comes from coal.

None of the three experts who spoke with Cointelegraph on the matter see the the juxtaposition of the two consensus protocols as productive. John Warren, CEO of crypto mining firm GEM Mining, noted that there are “slim to none” chances of Bitcoin transitioning to PoS. With that fact in mind, and given Bitcoin's status as the biggest cryptocurrency, ‘the industry should focus its attention on increased adoption of carbon-neutral energy sources versus trying to alter the Bitcoin verification process.”

John Belizaire rejected the idea that the government should support any of the bulletins over another:

Congress does not have enough knowledge to make a call on the technical architecture of a global platform that powers billions of dollars in assets [...] The technology community should be the final arbiter of innovation [...] The POW camp will innovate to solve its problems itself.

Mason Jappa, co-founder and CEO of mining company Blockware Solutions, remarked that both Proofs have their comparative advantages, but, in echoing Belzaire’s testimony, underscored the compatibility potential PoW networks possess towards renewable energy. In that sense, Jappa sees PoW mining as a "net positive for society":

Mining is a perfect complement to the energy grid and is repurposing infrastructure that was otherwise not being utilized, along with providing a use case for building out our energy grid.

What’s next?

As Jappa noted, "It is bullish for the ecosystem that this hearing took place", as once again the lawmakers expressed their understanding that cryptocurrencies are here to stay.

Warren specifically appreciated the part of the discussion that “underscored the ability for the mining industry to innovate more eco-friendly solutions.” We still witnessed plenty of 101 explanations of blockchain technology that reminded of the long way lawmakers should go in terms of their understanding of crypto economy, but, as Warren poined out:

It's important to acknowledge that there were a number of positive remarks that stemmed from the discussion, showcasing to the nation that mining has created many new jobs and that Bitcoin introduced valuable blockchain technology to the world. That perspective has been largely missing from some of the recent public discourse around crypto mining.

Besides the obvious need for both the general public and legislators to get better educated on the issue, there are some clear focal points around which the digital mining industry could rally, Belizaire believes.

For example, laws or governmental programs that encourage the use of renewable energy over legacy fossil fuels to power the industry, like “Incentives for job-creating in rural parts of the country where mining operations are set up – at both the state and federal level.”

Thus, it appears that the green mining card is the one that can present a straightforward economic and environmental argument in favor of the crypto industry, while the PoW/PoS debate is something that should be reserved for the crypto community rather than regulators.

Bitcoin miners believe global hash rate to grow ‘aggressively’

January 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Analysis

Despite the price of BTC, the Bitcoin network is the strongest it’s ever been, according to industry experts.

Bitcoin (BTC) seems to be on everyone’s mind lately as the world recently witnessed the price of BTC take a rather unexpected bearish turn this month. On January 21, 2022, Bitcoin reached six-month lows, sinking below $40,000 for the first time in months.

While some panicked, other industry experts pointed out that the Bitcoin network has become verifiably stronger than ever before. The growth of the Bitcoin network has become apparent, as hash rate figures for BTC continue to set new highs this month. For example, on Jan. 22, the BTC network recorded an all-time high of 26.643 trillion with an average hash rate of 190.71 exahash per second (EH/s).

The hash rate will continue to grow, which is a good thing

Samir Tabar, chief strategy officer at Bit Digital — a publicly listed Bitcoin miner — told Cointelegraph that the BTC hash rate refers to the amount of computing power being contributed to the network at any given time. Tabar explained that when it comes to Bitcoin mining, a higher hash rate equates to a good hash rate. “The more computing power going towards maintaining a network, the more secure it will be and the more transactions it will be able to handle,” said Tabar.

As such, the recent hash rate figures for Bitcoin are extremely notable, even with the price of BTC being down. Peter Wall, CEO of crypto mining firm Argo Blockchain, told Cointelegraph that he wasn’t surprised to see the BTC hash rate hit close to 200 EH/s. Wall further stated that even with events that have recently disrupted BTC mining hash rate like the political upheaval in Kazakhstan, the hash rate will continue to grow higher each month:

“Argo Blockchain’s mining margin last year in 2021, which is our revenue minus our direct costs, was over 80%. It was a very good year for miners. In 2020, where BTC prices were much lower, our margin was 41%. So, this year I think we will still see strong margins in the space despite the recent drop in the price of Bitcoin and the increase in the hash rate.”

Darin Feinstein, co-founder and co-chairman of Core Scientific — a major publicly-traded blockchain infrastructure provider — told Cointelegraph that based on previous Bitcoin mining hash rate data, the BTC network grew by 200% following the mass exodus of miners from China:

“The Bitcoin network one year ago was approximately 143 EH/s. Following the mining ban in China, the network fell to 63 EH/s. Today, the hash rate has grown to approximately 198 EH/s. This recent increase represents three important metrics. One, it represents a 130 EH hash rate increase on the network. Two, it represents 130 EH of new hosting infrastructure and primarily new generation hardware deployment and three, this deployment has taken place in geographic regions that use far cleaner energy than the energy used in China.”

With this in mind, Feinstein noted that even though the BTC network has hit all-time highs in terms of EH/s, due to the massive improvements in miner chip technology and geographic distribution away from China, the network is now the most efficient and sustainable than it has ever been. Feinstein added that this data is important because it shows how much energy every terahash uses, which is generally represented by a metric called jules/terahash. He noted that this ratio has fallen greatly over the last several years, demonstrating a major increase in mining energy efficiency.

*Bitcoin mining efficiency chart. Source: Darin Feinstein*

Will infrastructure support network growth?

Michael Levitt, co-founder chairman and CEO of Core Scientific, told Cointelegraph that he fully anticipates for the BTC global hash rate to continue growing at an aggressive pace.

However, Levitt mentioned that this growth is dependent on the price of Bitcoin moving forward, along with the success of the infrastructure currently being built. “The amount of infrastructure expected will be challenged by global supply chain issues,” he remarked.

Feinstein added that infrastructure is the biggest challenge when it comes to mining Bitcoin. “The bottlenecks for Bitcoin mining are land, energy, equipment, and lastly, infrastructure. There is plenty of ASIC hardware to be purchased, energy and land are also readily available, but miners need a place to plug in power, and, historically, that is where miners run into issues,” he commented.

North America has become one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining hubs, as per data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, which shows that 35% of the average monthly BTC hash rate comes from the United States, while 10% comes from Canada. Wall explained that North America has taken the lead as a global Bitcoin mining hub for a number of reasons. “This is the case due to the region’s crypto-friendly jurisdiction, its stable regulatory environment, pro-innovation nature and, most importantly, access to the most important thing miners need — low-cost power, preferably renewable.”

Wall elaborated that the low costs of power in the U.S. have been significant for miners, especially when organizations tap into the right part of the power grid. “We’ve seen significant growth in Texas over the last 12 months,” he said.

Cointelegraph previously reported that the Bitcoin mining industry in Texas consumed around 500 to 1,000 megawatts (MW) of power during Nov. 2021. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas reportedly anticipates that demand could increase as much as fivefold by 2023 and has planned an additional 3,000 to 5,000 MW.

Wall elaborated that many miners are moving to Texas due to the fact that the state operates its own power grid that consists of a high degree of power from sustainable generation sources, but needs more flexible demand, or load:

“Miners can provide a consistent load that is flexible. It’s also helpful that Texas has demand response programs in place, where miners will shut down and give power back to the grid when there is high demand. This makes the grid more resilient.”

Benefits such as these have prompted Argo Blockchain to build its next 200 MW facility in Dickens County, west Texas, directly next to a 5.5-gigawatt substation. “There is a lot of congestion at that substation and they need local load to relieve it. The power from west Texas needs to go a long way to reach major urban cities like Dallas and Houston. But, if we can use that energy much closer to where it’s being generated, that relieves the congestion,” remarked Wall.

By drawing power from a nearby substation, Argo Blockchain is demonstrating the use of sustainable energy. According to Wall, the mining company has been carbon negative since 2020. This is important, as Tabar stated that a massive environmental, social and governance movement is currently facing the crypto mining industry:

“Miners must draw from clean sources of power or else they will be regulated out of business. It can’t always be about the cheapest sources of power. Miners will eventually suffer valuation discounts if they use dirty power, even if that source is cheap.”

The perks of going public

A rush of mining firms to go public is another trend the Bitcoin mining industry is likely to witness this year. Most recently, Texas-based Bitcoin mining company Rhodium announced plans to offer 7.69 million shares at $12–$14 each in an initial public offering (IPO).

Core Scientific went public on Jan. 20 after merging with Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition in a SPAC transaction. Although shares of Core Scientific have fallen since then, Feinstein mentioned that every publicly listed crypto company — like Coinbase, Galaxy Digital and others — brings institutional investment opportunities to the U.S. market. “This is enhancing and bringing credibility to the entire industry,” he remarked.

Levitt added that Bitcoin miners going public brings about a number of benefits, including better access to capital while having publicly traded equity that can be used for acquiring and building other businesses. Moreover, Levitt added that having a public presence is useful for conversations in and around the financial services industry. “However, the principal benefit is much more ready access to capital for growing and developing our business,” said Levitt.

Witnesses address energy impacts of crypto mining during House hearing

January 20, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

“If policymakers take a cautious approach and foster a pro-innovation environment, the rewards for consumers, investors and all Americans are likely to be great," said Jordan Ramis shareholder Gregory Zerzan.

Five industry experts appearing before the United States House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee had different views on how lawmakers should address the energy consumption of cryptocurrencies.

In written testimony released before a Thursday hearing on “Cleaning Up Cryptocurrency: The Energy Impacts of Blockchains,” former Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks argued that the energy consumption of Bitcoin (BTC) mining was “economically productive” given other assets including gold required roughly the same amount of energy for mining, with the “a host of other environmental concerns.” In addition, Brooks said that the traditional global banking system consumed roughly 2.5 times the amount of power to produce the same amount of value BTC does at its current market capitalization.

John Belizaire, the founder and CEO Soluna Computing and another witness appearing at the hearing, said that from an energy perspective, the miners and computers needed to power crypto are "not a waste" and could encourage the development of renewable energy sources. The CEO said that unlike other banking systems, Bitcoin mining included the option of turning the systems off when necessary, giving miners the ability to absorb excess energy from an area’s electrical grid rather than straining it.

Cornell Tech professor Ari Juels, who has often been a critic of crypto mining as it stands today, was supportive of the crypto space as a whole but argued in favor of “energy efficient alternatives” rather than the proof-of-work common for mining. He added that the Ethereum blockchain’s transition to proof-of-stake would likely consume “far less electricity” and have features including smart contracts and nonfungible tokens — unlike Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin does not equal blockchain,” said Juels. “The tremendous promise of blockchain technology does not require Bitcoin or its energy-intensive component called proof of work.”

Steve Wright, a recently retired former general manager of the Chelan County in Washington, similarly hinted that mining firms should consider "mechanisms to assure cryptocurrency production is encouraged toward efficient outcomes as early as possible." Wright noted that the high value of clean energy costs in the area seems to be pushing many crypto miners towards carbon-emitting, fossil-fired sources of power "at least the near term."

U.S. lawmakers seem to be giving crypto and blockchain a great deal of attention as the space grows. In December, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on stablecoins and how the U.S. might participate in the race to adopt digital currencies. Brooks also testified at a House committee hearing that same month on digital assets’ role in the future of finance.

“Although digital tokens are a highly speculative and volatile asset class, they also represent the promise of a more open, more widely shared internet,” said Gregory Zerzan, a shareholder at business law firm Jordan Ramis. “If policymakers take a cautious approach and foster a pro-innovation environment, the rewards for consumers, investors and all Americans are likely to be great.”

Former pro-crypto CoC Brian Brooks to testify in a House hearing on the energy impacts of mining

January 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

Crypto allies dominate the list of witnesses slated to appear before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

As the U.S. Congress prepares to take a thorough look at the energy use of crypto mining, the list of witnesses for the Thursday hearing contains more proponents of blockchain technology than its outright critics.

The House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee announced a hearing on “Cleaning Up Cryptocurrency: The Energy Impacts of Blockchains” last week, with the event itself scheduled for Thursday. The focus of the hearing will be on the energy and the environmental effects of crypto mining, specifically as it relates to networks that use a proof-of-work, or PoW, consensus mechanism.

A Committee on Energy and Commerce staff memo released on Jan. 17 revealed the list of witnesses invited to testify. Among the five experts on the list, only one — Cornell Tech professor Ari Juels — can be definitively categorized as an outspoken critic of Bitcoin (BTC) mining in its current form. Ironically, Juels is one of two authors of a 1999 paper that defined and introduced the term “proof-of-work.”

Another entry on the witness list is Brian Brooks, former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and Binance.US CEO who in Nov. 2021 joined BitFury, a major player in the crypto mining industry, as CEO. Also notable is the presence of John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna Computing, a firm that is focused on developing green data centers for batchable computing. In a Jan. 6 blog post, Belizaire lauded Bitcoin’s energy consumption as a “feature, not a bug,” arguing that it provides a viable mechanism for absorbing excess renewable energy.

Utility providers will be represented by Steve Wright, a recently retired former general manager of the Chelan County, Washington state, public utility district. During his tenure, Wright took steps to attract cryptocurrency miners to the county.

Gregory Zerzan, Jordan Ramis shareholder and former acting assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury, once noted that concerns around Bitcoin mining could be addressed by “transitioning away from fossil fuels.”

The memo itself offers a rather balanced overview of energy-related concerns associated with PoW mining, although it also reiterates certain statements that have been questioned by recent research. For one, the authors stated that the energy consumption and environmental impact of crypto mining may grow in the coming years — a claim that was countered in Bitcoin Policy Institute’s fact-checking brochure.

Jake Chervinsky, head of policy at the Blockchain Association, tweeted that the memo was “not all bad, but commits basic errors.”

The House E&C Committee published a 9-page memo for this week's hearing on crypto's energy use. It's not all bad, but commits basic errors, like repeating the fallacy of "per transaction" carbon emissions.

Read it here & watch Thursday at 10:30 am ET: https://t.co/AgMes2zOwf
— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) January 18, 2022

The hearing is scheduled for 10:30 am EST on Jan. 20 and will be streamed here.

Energy Consumption