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Renewable Energy

Apr 07 2021

China’s Bitcoin Mining Industry Could Derail Climate Targets: Researchers

As China’s bitcoin mining industry grows bigger, some researchers believe the electricity-gulping bitcoin mining may prevent China from achieving its climate goals.

This was made known in a recent study published in the Journal Nature by the researchers. 

Increasing Concerns Over Climate Security

The study reveals that China powers approximately 80% of the world trade in cryptocurrency.

Given the fact that Bitcoin operates on the blockchain, every transaction is encrypted by a network operated by miners, which use high electricity consumption in the process.

The miners use high-powered computers to validate transactions, which consumes huge electricity and may have implications on climate security.

However, the Journal Nature report shows that 40% of China’s Bitcoin is powered by coal. This is where the problem starts. 

Researchers believe that since most of these big coal plants emit carbon, they may have adverse effects on the climate’s health.

While China projects to overcome carbon emissions before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060, the researchers warned that the lofty objective might be impossible with rising Bitcoin mining activity.

Also, Nature Study projected that China’s Bitcoin mines might accumulate approximately 130.5m metric tons of carbon emission by 2024.

The study gathers that the availability of affordable electricity in China and access to hardware-enabled companies in China controls about 78.89% of the global bitcoin blockchain.

The activities of these companies involve mining coins, tracking and monitoring cryptocurrency transactions.

However, the co-author of the piece, Wang Shouyang, warned that continued Bitcoin mining activities could have grave consequences on the climate if left unchecked.

Way forward On China’s Crypto Mining Industry

Experts have recommended some alternative paths that the Chinese government could take in managing cryptocurrency mining and preserving its climate security policy.

In this regard, Shouyang advised the government to concentrate on upgrading the power grid to create a stable power supply from renewable energy sources.

He explained that renewable energy sources provide cleaner energy and are also cost-effective, adding that this will even motivate the miners to relocate from coal-powered regions to clean-energy regions.

According to a Cambridge University’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, it is envisaged that the crypto-mining industry will consume 0.06% of the globe’s electricity production.

However, experts enjoined the Chinese government not to raise carbon taxes as a form of deterrence. Instead, they should work in providing alternative solutions.

China imposed a blanket ban on cryptocurrency in 2019 but has allowed the cryptocurrency mining industry to continue.

China’s coal-rich regions are imposing stiffer measures on Bitcoin miners, given their policy in curbing emissions. For example, In April, the provincial government of Inner Mongolia has rolled out plans to outlaw cryptocurrency mining before the end of April.

China’s Bitcoin Mining Industry Could Derail Climate Targets: Researchers

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: cryptocurrency · Tagged: bitcoin, Bitcoin mining, blockchain, carbon, carbon neutral, china, climate change, coal, Computers, crypto, crypto mining, cryptocurrency, electricity, energy, Global, government, health, miners, mining, Mongolia, Renewable Energy, report, security, Study, Taxes, trade, transaction, Transactions, work, world

Mar 08 2021

Norweigian Conglomerate Aker ASA to Launch Bitcoin Investment Company

Norwegian holding company, Aker ASA is set to launch a new investment company called Seetee AS. The industrial company said that the new investment company would be dedicated solely to bitcoin and blockchain technology, Reuters reports.

Seetee AS and Bitcoin

Seetee AS would be focusing on bitcoin projects and companies as stated by Kjell Inge Roekke, the billionaire chairman and majority owner of Aker.

The Norwegian billionaire stated in a letter written to the company’s shareholders that Seetee would be launching with 500 million Norwegian Krone ($58.6 million) in capital.

In an announcement released on Monday, Aker said its new investment entity, Seetee AS, will keep all its liquid investable assets in bitcoin and will also enter the bitcoin mining industry in due time.

The Oslo stock exchange-listed company further made known that Seetee had partnered with Blockstream, a blockchain technology company based in Canada. The collaboration would see the companies work on Bitcoin mining while also seeking to fuse blockchain technology with Aker’s industrial operations.

Speaking on the importance of technology advancement, Aker ASA Chief Executive Oeyvind Eriksen said;

“These technologies have the potential to reduce frictions in our day to day lives, enhance the security of our digitally-driven economies, and unlock new business models for innovation.”

Although Aker is a holding company focused on energy, construction and fishing, most of its income is gotten from the oil and gas industry. However, in recent years it has increased its investments in renewable energy and information technology.

Companies Putting Cash Treasuries in Bitcoin

As companies start to see the benefits of investing in or converting cash treasuries into bitcoin, the demand in the Bitcoin market will continue to increase.

Publicly traded companies have seen the need to turn their treasury cash into bitcoin because they’re worried about the low-interest rates and the scourge of inflation with all the money printing and the coronavirus effect.

Microstrategy is one big name that has amassed bitcoin steadily over time. The American publicly listed company bought a total of $4.45 billion worth of Bitcoins over some time and is now said to have a market value worth $2.428 billion, printing a gain of over $1.2 billion.

Last month, Tesla Inc disclosed that it had bought $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, which sent the token’s price up 20%.

Square has also announced last month in its fiscal fourth-quarter financial report that it bought $170 million worth of bitcoin. The company said it purchased approximately 3,318 bitcoins, expanding on its October 2020 buy of 4,709 and that represents about 5% of the company’s total assets as of the end of 2020.

Meitu Inc, a Chinese company known for its beauty-focused photo editing app, also poured $40 million into Ethereum and Bitcoin.

Norweigian Conglomerate Aker ASA to Launch Bitcoin Investment Company

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: cryptocurrency · Tagged: 2020, american, bitcoin, Bitcoin mining, bitcoins, blockchain, business, Canada, Cash, company, construction, coronavirus, energy, ethereum, inflation, information, Information technology, innovation, Investing, investment, Investments, market, Meitu, Microstrategy, mining, models, money, Norway, october, Oil, oslo, photo, printing, Renewable Energy, report, said, security, stock, Technology, tesla, TESLA INC, work

Dec 31 2020

Bitcoin Analyst Argues that BTC Mining Is Not Wasteful, but Rather an Efficient Process to Secure a Highly Valuable Network

As Bitcoin (BTC) continues to set new highs, it became clear to many people that the digital asset could serve as a hedge against the traditional financial system. This year, many well-known investors, including Stanley Druckenmiller (a hedge fund manager with a net worth of $4.4 billion) have changed their mind about Bitcoin in the current macro-economic environment.

Druckenmiller thinks Bitcoin could serve as a hedge against US dollar depreciation and the ever-rising American stock market.

Sampo, a Bitcoin analyst, points out that stil, “not everyone has changed their mind, though, and the seemingly ever-present nay-sayers are also back.” They note that a popular or common argument against BTC is that it wastes too much energy. Although it’s true that mining BTC (or other proof of work cryptos) requires a very large amount of electricity, “the argument that it is a waste of energy has been debunked,” Sampo (a guest author/analyst) writes in a blog post published by LocalBitcoins.

According to Sampo, Bitcoin is “the ultimate cost-efficient way to spend electricity, and … [crypto] mining minimizes wasted energy and increases the use of sustainable energy solutions.”

At present, 900 new Bitcoins are created each day or every 24 hours. New Bitcoins are minted by using computing power to solve very complex mathematical problems. This requires large amounts of electricity. In fact, the total energy consumption of the BTC network is about 77 terawatt-hours (at the time of writing). This is even more than the total energy consumption of developed nations like Switzerland and the Czech Republic, Sampo confirms.

But since the total value of the BTC network has now surpassed the “total value of most major banks,” it’s clear that “a lot of energy is needed to secure the network,” Sampo claims.  They argue that “all this immense energy is used to secure the safest value network ever created [so] it’s not wasted.”

Sampo further noted that “in practice, what it means to secure the Bitcoin network [is that] new bitcoins are created by validating blocks, which also contain the transaction information of all transactions on the Bitcoin network.” At the beginning, when the genesis block was mined, this “could be done with computer processors, CPUs,” Sampo notes.

But GPUs (graphics processing units in PCs) were a lot more efficient in solving the mathematical equations. And after the BTC network gained a lot more recognition, and Bitcoin acquired more value, hardware companies began producing ASICs – which are “optimized to solve the equations involved in mining Bitcoin,” Sampo explained.

GPUs may still be used for mining purposes, however, it’s quite difficult or even impossible to do it “profitably as an individual,” Sampo notes. They confirm that the process was “commercialized and optimized years ago.”

They added that the total hash rate of the BTC network is around 131.791 TH/s – which is an “immense amount of computing power protecting the network from outside attacks since any significant threats would require 51%, the majority of the hashing power, to force changes into the network.”

Sampo compares this to the hash rate of a typical gaming PC. They point out that “this is all very hypothetical, but let’s say that the potential hash rate of a low to mid-tier PC is approximately 23 MH/s.” Then “dedicating the GPU of this PC to bitcoin mining would account for 0.000017% of the current total hash rate of the Bitcoin network.”

Using these numbers, of the 900 new Bitcoins, “the daily share of this setup would amount to 0.000153 bitcoin, or 15,300 satoshis, currently worth $3.60.” When we “reduce the mining pool fees and the price of the electricity needed for running the PC 24/7, [then we can see that] this operation would be unprofitable.” More than likely, this setup would never be able to recover the initial investment.

This suggests that mining might be possible for individuals, however, it may not be profitable. But we can also see that a massive amount of energy consumed “protects the network” and “profitable mining requires optimal hardware, and optimal mining conditions,” Sampo states.

They added:

“Optimized hardware equals optimized returns. Cheap electricity prices equal optimized returns. When these two conditions are met, an optimal environment for Bitcoin mining is created, and Bitcoin mining incentivizes electricity users to minimize wasted energy. In other words, the game theory of Bitcoin mining eliminates actors who waste energy….mining favors countries with cheap electricity which usually equates to countries that are struggling financially, such as Venezuela. Unfortunately for Venezuelans, the industry has recently been forced into the national pool and even the Venezuelan army has started mining bitcoin.”

Sampo argues that if it were a waste of energy, then “why would governments do it?”

They further noted:

“Mining bitcoin is not only for countries where cheap electricity is available everywhere. Cheap electricity sources exist all around the globe, and they are the future trend in bitcoin mining. …oil and gas fields are using their excess energy to mine Bitcoin. This way, they can reduce their carbon footprint by utilizing the previously wasted energy. The same is true for hydropower plants and since renewable energy is an inexhaustible source of energy, these solutions have huge potential in powering the Bitcoin network in the future.”

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: american, analyst, Banks, bitcoin, Bitcoin mining, bitcoins, Blockchain & Digital Assets, blog, btc, btc mining, carbon, Computing, crypto, crypto mining, digital, digital asset, Dollar, electricity, energy, Environment, fund, Fund Manager, Future, game, gaming, Global, hardware, information, investment, market, mining, more, note, opinion, other, Renewable Energy, republic, returns, stock, sustainable, Switzerland, transaction, us, Venezuela, work

Oct 01 2020

Ripple Pledges to Achieve Carbon Net-Zero By 2030

Ripple, a provider of enterprise blockchain solutions for payments, announced on Wednesday it is committing to be carbon net-zero by 2030. Ripple claims it is the first company in the blockchain industry to do so and as part of achieving this goal, the company has unveiled several initiatives to lead global finance toward a carbon-neutral future, which includes the launch of an open-source tool that helps enable any blockchain to decarbonize.

“As the world becomes increasingly digital, ensuring fintech is sustainable becomes even more critical. Ripple is committing to lead this effort with strategic technology and conservation organizations, including REBA and Rocky Mountain Institute.”

Ripple is committing to achieve carbon net-zero by 2030. Within this timeframe, the company plans to:

  • Comprehensively measure and reduce its carbon footprint, and buy clean, renewable energy in markets where Ripple has offices and employees.
  • Fund innovative carbon removal technology, with the goal of removing all remaining emissions.
  • Expand partnerships with innovative conservation organizations and academia.

While sharing more details about the efforts, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, added:

“As digital payments continue to evolve, we need to make long-term systemic shifts as an industry to ensure digital transformation doesn’t come at the cost of our planet. We are leading this change and urging all crypto players to hold themselves accountable–monitoring their energy consumption to make greener choices.”

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Blockchain, Crowdfunding, cryptocurrency · Tagged: blockchain, Blockchain & Digital Assets, carbon, ceo, company, crypto, cryptocurrency, digital, digital payments, digital transformation, energy, Enterprise, finance, fintech, Future, Global, markets, net zero, payments, Renewable Energy, ripple, Technology, world

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