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White House Pushes DAME Tax Proposal to Address Alleged Environmental Costs of Crypto Mining

White House Pushes DAME Tax Proposal to Address Alleged Environmental Costs of Crypto MiningOn May 2, 2023, the Biden administration unveiled a blog post outlining the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) tax, featured in the president’s comprehensive 182-page budget proposal for the fiscal year 2024. The DAME tax targets “making crypto miners pay for the costs they impose on others” regarding the environmental impact of crypto mining activities. […]

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Stop the Presses: Criticism Against the New York Times Mounts as Newspaper Is Accused of Killing 59 Million Trees Annually

Stop the Presses: Criticism Against the New York Times Mounts as Newspaper Is Accused of Killing 59 Million Trees AnnuallyAfter the New York Times (NYT) published an editorial about bitcoin mining, claiming the industry is harmful to the environment, an organization called Stop the Presses took issue with the Times’ paper usage. Stop the Presses launched a social media campaign against the NYT’s newspaper production. The organization’s website, nytimesup.org, alleges that the company “kills […]

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Environmental Impact of AI Models Takes Center Stage Amid Criticism Against Bitcoin Mining

Environmental Impact of AI Models Takes Center Stage Amid Criticism Against Bitcoin MiningWhile bitcoin’s effect on the environment has been discussed at length over the last two years, the latest trend of artificial intelligence (AI) software is now being criticized for its carbon footprint. According to several headlines and academic papers this year, AI consumes significant electricity and leverages copious amounts of water to cool data centers. […]

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Bitcoin Proponents Accuse the New York Times of Publishing One-Sided ‘Hit Piece’ on Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin Proponents Accuse the New York Times of Publishing One-Sided ‘Hit Piece’ on Bitcoin MiningAfter the New York Times was accused of writing favorable pieces about disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and inviting him to speak at the news outlet’s Dealbook Summit, it is once again being criticized for publishing a “hit piece” about bitcoin mining. The article’s authors claim that bitcoin mining is harmful to the environment, while […]

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Elizabeth Warren Explains Her ‘Anti-Crypto Army’ Stance; Waves of Democrats Oppose Her Bitcoin Criticism

Elizabeth Warren Explains Her ‘Anti-Crypto Army’ Stance; Waves of Democrats Oppose Her Bitcoin CriticismElizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, has recently launched a political campaign against cryptocurrencies as she seeks a third term in office in 2024. In a recent interview on “Meet the Press Reports” with NBC’s Chuck Todd, Warren likened buying bitcoin to “buying air.” Despite her stated distrust of banks, Warren told the show […]

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Greenpeace war on Bitcoin unintentionally spawns ‘badass’ new mascot

Greenpeace’s “Skull of Satoshi” artwork highlights their gripes with Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism, but Bitcoin supporters adopted it as a new mascot.

Environmental group Greenpeace’s latest salvo against Bitcoin (BTC) has seen the commissioning of an artwork aimed at highlighting its climate impact. Instead, the art piece has been widely praised by Bitcoiners, who want to adopt it as its mascot.

On March 23, the climate activism group partnered with art activist Benjamin Von Wong for its ongoing “change the code, not the climate” campaign that seeks to convert Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model.

Greenpeace revealed its art piece dubbed the “Skull of Satoshi” — an 11 feet (3.3 meters) tall skull featuring the Bitcoin logo and red laser eyes, a popular meme adopted by Bitcoin supporters.

“Smoking stacks” sit atop the skull, which is made of recycled electronic waste, supposedly to represent the “fossil fuel and coal pollution” caused by Bitcoin mining and the “millions of computers” used to validate network transactions.

Greenpeace's marketing efforts took an unexpected turn when Bitcoin supporters expressed admiration for the art piece, with some already adopting it as a quasi-mascot.

Will Foxley, the media strategy director at crypto miner Compass Mining, called the art piece “badass” and changed his Twitter profile picture to an image of the Skull of Satoshi.

Coin Metrics co-founder Nic Carter tweeted on March 24 that the art is the “most metal Bitcoin artwork to date.”

Related: Eager to work: Bitcoin switch to proof-of-stake remains unlikely

Others, meanwhile, picked apart the imagery Greenpeace chose, with one Twitter user saying the smokestacks on the skulls head resembled nuclear-cooling towers, which emit steam.

Greenpeace’s campaign was launched around a year ago alongside other climate groups and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen.

It aims to pressure key Bitcoin developers, miners and the government and claims 30 “key” entities could move Bitcoin from proof-of-work if they agreed to the change.

Magazine: Best and worst countries for crypto taxes — Plus crypto tax tips

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ESG Analyst Daniel Batten Reveals Dynamic Charts Showing Bitcoin’s 52.6% Sustainable Energy Use

ESG Analyst Daniel Batten Reveals Dynamic Charts Showing Bitcoin’s 52.6% Sustainable Energy UseEnvironmental, social, and governance (ESG) analyst Daniel Batten said Tuesday that the computational backbone of the Bitcoin network now uses 52.6% sustainable energy. Batten and onchain analyst Willy Woo created Dynamic Bitcoin ESG Charts to showcase the protocol’s progress. Contrary to Cambridge University Data, Analyst Says Bitcoin Mining Uses 52.6% Sustainable Energy These days, there […]

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World Economic Forum Shares a Video About Changing Bitcoin’s Code to Proof-of-Stake

World Economic Forum Shares a Video About Changing Bitcoin’s Code to Proof-of-StakeAccording to a World Economic Forum (WEF) tweet, a “change in the way bitcoin is coded could almost eliminate its environmental impact.” That statement stems from a tweet the WEF published on April 26, with an accompanying video that claims “miners could stake their own bitcoins to verify transactions.” WEF on Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work: A ‘Basic […]

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Bitso to Offset Carbon Emissions From the Trading Platform’s BTC, ETH, ERC20 Transactions

Bitso to Offset Carbon Emissions From the Trading Platform’s BTC, ETH, ERC20 TransactionsOn Friday, the Latin American cryptocurrency platform Bitso announced that the company plans to offset carbon emissions from its bitcoin and ERC20 token transactions carried out on the platform. Bitso is partnering with the carbon offset platform Moss.Earth in order to curb the crypto company’s environmental impact. Bitso to Offset Crypto Transaction Carbon Emissions by […]

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Climate-focused Hyphen aims to hold companies accountable for eco-data reporting

“Corporations need the ability to accurately track and report their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions to establish baselines ...,” says Austin.

As concerns for environmental impact rose, the market started to require a framework that allows projects to showcase their ecological implications accurately. Because of this, climate-focused data tracking project Hyphen has found a market gap that it’s very eager to fill.  

With the support of a Chainlink grant back in 2021, the project is now launching a decentralized oracle network (DON) that allows smart contracts to have access to a verified resource, providing greenhouse gas data starting with nitrous oxide (N2O). This sparks the creation of a reporting ecosystem that holds corporations accountable for their emissions and allows climate disclosures for compliance with regulations. 

Miles Austin, the CEO of Hyphen, told Cointelegraph that the project provides “timely data flows of climate emissions information from global sources to both the private sector and public sector.” With this, capital markets are able to use “real-world climate data” as they strategically plan for sustainability. 

“Corporations need the ability to accurately track and report their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions in order to establish baselines to work from in order to reach climate commitments.” 

Hyphen chief technology officer Thierry Gilgen says the platform gives out "validated and trustworthy data streams" to emerging financial ecosystems built on blockchain or distributed ledger technology. With the Chainlink DON, data reported by companies will also go through a decentralized and independent verification process. It eliminates fraudulent and inaccurate reporting. 

“We use Chainlink nodes to validate and make available data from scientific organizations for smart contract use, in order to build comprehensive climate tracking and regulatory services for governmental organizations, financial institutions and enterprises that are bound to the new green finance/climate regulations emerging worldwide.”

Related: Are we misguided about Bitcoin mining's environmental impacts? Slush Pool's CMO Kristian Csepcsar explains

The initial launch features N2O data from the Integrated Carbon Observation System using the Montreal Protocol framework, a global treaty protecting the ozone layer.

While the debate on the environmental impact of crypto continues to live on, recent reports show that Bitcoin (BTC) mining uses only 0.08% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. The network emitted 42 megatons (Mts) of CO2 while the total emissions amounted to 49,360 Mts.

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