- By Henry Faulkner Brittany
- June 27, 2022
Following the meeting of Bitcoin miners and Elon Musk, a Bitcoin mining council has been created. Bitcoin Mining council will ensure the sustainability of cryptocurrency and make necessary improvements to it.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla tweeted about the development that it was “potentially promising.”
It is hoped that the council will promote energy usage transparency and encourage the bitcoin miners to take renewable sources into use.
The Bitcoin mining process consumes large amounts of electricity which is affecting the consumption of electricity other than mining purposes.
Earlier this month Bitcoin value fell down after Tesla denied supporting the cryptocurrency, keep upfront the citing environmental concerns.
Bitcoin operates on the blockchain which is a digital ledger of transactions.
Bitcoin Mining consumes a huge amount of electricity because of the enormous computing power requirement.
The electricity consumption of Bitcoin is currently greater than the Netherlands, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.
Elon Musk tweeted that the group aimed to provide proper and planned details about renewable energy usage.
It is Bitcoin which is in the most naked form representing free-market capitalism.
Bitcoin is unregulated because it is not under the administration of any central bank or government – and some crypto enthusiasts are extreme libertarians, hoped to see the infrastructure of a traditional financial circle of state just melting away.
So, Elon Musk promotes the idea of the Bitcoin Mining Council to ensure the sustainable consumption of energy in the Crypto’s processes.
The cheapest energy source that the Bitcoin miners can easily try their hands on is Hydro-Electric power in the US but has often been coal-fired power stations in China.
Even after the success of the Chinese government in its clampdown on Crypto mining, it seems as miners in countries like Russia will continue to consume energy electricity generated from fossil fuels. While American miners are ambitious to slap a green energy label on their activities – but the wider Bitcoin market may make that either uneconomic or irrelevant.
In early this month, Tesla restricts vehicle purchases using Bitcoin currency, showing concerns about its environmental impact. It revealed in February that it had bought around $1.5bn of digital currency.
“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Elon Musk tweeted at the time.
But the group needs to do more than “disclosing and promoting the use of renewables”, said Alex de Vries.
“Even if we had disclosure, that doesn’t change the natural incentive of these miners to search out the cheapest and most constant sources of power – which typically comes down to (obsolete) fossil fuels,” he said.
“Kentucky even came up with a tax break for Bitcoin miners to come and use their obsolete coalfields. So, I’m not seeing this trend towards more renewables.”
However, Peter Wall who is a member of the council and the Chief Executive of Argo argued on choosing renewable power. “It’s early days, it’s embryonic. There will be lots of discussions moving forward about the best way to promote sustainable Bitcoin mining and to do it not just in North America,” he said.
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