If you want to learn more about the positive impact of Bitcoin mining on the environment. Then you are on the right website. In this article, I'll cover key areas of impact, the global benefits, state-level benefits in the US, and general benefits of Bitcoin mining. To show you that Bitcoin mining is not just a global emitter but can actually have a positive impact on the environment and the world's energy grid.
Reasons 1: Hydro dam Africa
There are so many reasons why Bitcoin mining is good for the environment.
For example, in the mountains of Malawi, Africa, Bitcoin mining is helping one out of every 600 families. By utilizing cheaper hydroelectric energy and Stark Link internet connectivity, Bitcoin mining is contributing to more sustainable energy and decreasing the cost of power for local communities. In fact, a Powerhouse in the Southern mountains of Malawi that had 50 kilowatts of excess energy, is now being used for Bitcoin mining to help the community become more self-sustaining.
Reasons 2: keeping the cats warm
A Man devised a solution to assist stray cats during winter by utilizing the warmth generated from Bitcoin mining, while simultaneously generating a profit. He uses a few computers to mine Bitcoin and vents the excess heat created by the machines into a tiny cat house outside. Not only does he make a nice profit from doing so. He also saves the lives of some street cats in the process.
Reasons 3: Empowering Lebanon
When talking about the crypto mines mentioned earlier. Given the widespread power cuts and fuel shortages you might wonder, how does this make sense as a profitable venture in Lebanon?
Well, the answer lies in hydropower. In certain regions, such as the Shoof mountain range south of Lebanon, there is an abundance of inexpensive electricity being generated from the Litani river. Ahmed Abu Dare, a 22-year-old entrepreneur, runs a large mining network across the country with 40 employees. Some of his mining farms are powered by solar energy near the Syrian border. What's particularly interesting about his business model is that he allows people to invest remotely in his operation and earn a monthly dividend in crypto. Some of his customers are located far away from the farms, in countries such as Syria, Turkey, and Egypt. It's a fascinating setup.
Reasons 4: Turning of other bigger energy users
Bitcoin was of course created to fight the current financial system. To protect people like yourself from inflation, but it also helps the environment with this battle. Because even though it costs a lot of electricity to mine BTC. It costs way more to mine gold and uphold the traditional financial system. So by replacing this old system Bitcoin could actually shut down a system that uses much more electricity and materials.
Reasons 5: Decarbonizing the grit
The largest power company in Japan, Tepco, has found a new use for their surplus renewable energy - mining Bitcoin. By doing so, they are not only reducing energy costs for consumers and increasing profits but also decarbonizing the energy grid. Similarly, in Costa Rica, a hydroelectric plant in the middle of a forest had to shut down for nine months as it was no longer profitable. However, it is now back online generating sustainable energy and mining Bitcoin, thanks to which it has found a new lease on life.
Reasons 6: Stirring away from war, Lebanon
The Lebanese local currency, which is used by regular people for day to day trade, savings, and buying and selling, has experienced a staggering decline of over 95 percent in value. Due to the closure of banks, worthlessness of pensions, and lack of cash in ATMs, people in Lebanon are turning to Bitcoin mining for survival.
Lebanon's economy has been severely impacted by decades of war and poor governmental spending decisions, leading to fuel shortages, power cuts, and the depletion of people's life savings. With a local currency that has lost almost all its value and limited access to their own money, some individuals are resorting to armed robbery of banks or others. In response, a shadow crypto economy has emerged, with locals turning to Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Monero mining for income. Others are finding freelance work on platforms like Reddit or Fiverr, and opting to be paid in Bitcoin. Which they believe is a safer way to store their savings. Overall, there is a desperate need for a currency that makes sense. A decentralized digital currencies that provide a more viable option than the unstable Lebanese Lira.
Reasons 7: Making green energy profit more
In Costa Rica, over 650 machines from 150 customers operate non-stop at the post River plant, providing clean energy to a rapidly expanding business. The state has a monopoly on energy distribution and generates almost all its energy from green sources. A plant invested $500,000 to host digital mining computers, which has proved to be a successful venture.
Reasons 8: Volcano, El Salvador
Another example is the Tipaka volcano in El Salvador, which produces more clean and sustainable geothermal energy than the local community can use. Bitcoin mining helps balance the electric grid and lower energy costs by using the extra energy produced by the volcano.
Reasons 9: Warming cities
North Vancouver is making history by becoming the first city in the world to be heated by Bitcoin mining. The city will utilize sustainable energy and Bitcoin mining to lower costs and provide heat.
Reasons 10: Growing food with BTC
Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, Bitcoin is being used to crowdfund solar panels. A project called Nimway Fresh, consisting of 250 smallholder farmers growing berries and vegetables, was funded by 1,900 individuals from 98 countries, made possible thanks to Bitcoin.
Reasons 11: Reducing impact from flaring
The fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil and many other fossil fuel companies are utilizing Bitcoin mining to reduce harmful emissions. They do this by burning harmful gasses that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. Although still harmful for the environment, this method significantly refuses its negative impact.
Reasons 12: Stabilizing an energy grit
In New Hampshire, Bitcoin mining is being introduced, and the governor recommends that the Department of Energy assess how Bitcoin mining can stabilize the energy grid, promote sustainable generation projects, and reduce costs for consumers.
The Texas governor believes that Bitcoin and blockchain technology are key to the future of innovation and wants Texas to be at the forefront of this movement. By providing a platform for blockchain and Bitcoin businesses, Texas is promoting innovation and making it easier for companies to do business without facing excessive regulation. Furthermore, Bitcoin mining is helping to balance Texas's energy grid and is driving the growth of renewable energy in the state. At the Texas blockchain Summit, Brad Jones, CEO of the Texas energy grid, spoke about the positive impact that Bitcoin mining is having on the energy grid.
Bitcoin can play a crucial role in balancing the grid and managing resources. As prices rise, excess power can be sold to other consumers while more renewable energy is brought into the state. This helps stabilize prices throughout the day, driving more renewables into the system, which is beneficial for Texas. Brad Jones, the CEO of the Texas energy grid, shared this insight at the Texas Blockchain Summit.
Reasons 13: Making solar a better investment
Just like with wind energy the same thing happens to solar energy. However the average person does not own their own wind turbine. But lots of them do own their own solar panels.
For quite some time communities with lots of solar panels would help the environment while also creating discounted electricity and earning some extra cash back when they would produce more than they needed themselves. But nowadays many electricity grit companies are not paying these people much or anything at all anymore for the excess electricity.
A local Bitcoin mining place could thus pay these people for their excess power and make it more interesting to keep (or get new) solar panels on their roofs.
Reasons 14: Development of better tech
Intel, the semiconductor industry leader, is developing energy-efficient chips for Bitcoin mining. Making the Bitcoin blockchain more energy efficient and stronger at the same time. Whilst also funding more development in better semiconductors.
Reasons 15: Funding solar
A company plans to build a massive solar project in Montana that is primarily for crypto. But also promises to provide green electricity to the local community. This is an exciting development in the push for renewable energy.
Reasons 16: Keeping Hydro in the game
Bitcoin mining has saved the oldest hydroelectric facility in the United States, the Mechanicville hydroelectric plant, from being shut down. This 1897 facility was no longer profitable, but Bitcoin mining helped it stay afloat. Keeping this green energy facility alive but also at the same time making the Bitcoin network more green.
Reasons 17: Cleaning up coal waste
In the United States, Bitcoin mining is being used to remediate toxic waste and save taxpayers $5 billion in a Pennsylvania town. The Panther Creek Plant in Corbin County, PA, which operates a Bitcoin mine using waste from old coal mines as a power source. The borough of Nesquehoning in Pennsylvania's coal country is now home to the US newest large-scale Bitcoin mine.
Publicly traded Stronghold Digital Mining purchased the Panther Creek energy facility, a defunct coal plant, to power its Bitcoin mine. Energy industry veteran Bill Spence developed the idea to profit from digital currency while also cleaning up his home state of coal refuse. He sees a direct correlation between Bitcoin and environmental remediation, stating, "you get the Bitcoin, you get rid of the waste."
At the Swoyersville dump site near Wilkes-Barre, workers separate usable coal from massive piles of coal waste collected from several sites. The usable coal is used to generate electricity, some of which is sold back to the grid for profit, while most of it powers and cools a field of computer servers that are all connected to the blockchain to process Bitcoin transactions worldwide. Stronghold, which receives fractions of Bitcoin as a reward, operates the digital mining park. The site has 80 trailers, each containing 64 computer servers that are constantly mining Bitcoin. In just two hours, Stronghold estimates that they can mine about one Bitcoin. This approach is more sustainable for transaction processing.
Reasons 18: Reducing energy cost
The United States House Committee on Financial Services believes that digital assets and their related mining activities are crucial to the country's economic future. Bitcoin mining can even help reduce energy costs and keep buildings warm, such as a room hotel during the winter. These are all compelling arguments for the benefits of Bitcoin mining.
Reasons 19: Powering greenhouses
Through repurposing the heat produced by Bitcoin mining, engineers have developed profitable and sustainable hydroponic fish hatcheries, heating systems for homes and barns, and even flower growth. The excess heat generated from Bitcoin mining can easily be used for lots of other things that need heat, like warming water or air in greenhouses and fish hatcheries.
Reasons 20: Making Wind a better investment
By using Proof of Work BTC can make wind energy more profitable. In many places energy is not used at the same quantity throughout the day. While at the same time the wind does not blow only when you want it to. This means that wind energy farms may produce a lot of energy when it is not needed and sometimes don't produce anything when they do need it. If wind farms would use a few miners to direct their excess electricity into, they could make a nice profit from electricity that would otherwise not be used at all. This makes the whole process of wind energy more profitable and thus makes it a better investment and easier to build more of it.
Bitcoin is thus incentivizing green energy in this way.
Reasons 21: The future
Innovation! Yes, a bit cheesy but hear me out. Some years ago Bitcoin was already running at full speed. But not as many cool environment protecting projects were started with it. And most of the projects mentioned before have started in recent years. So the most exciting green incentives might not be found yet. But there are sure many ways to use Proof of Work and Bitcoin to do good for the planet as well as humanity. So I am personally very excited to see what other great things will come in the future
Why Bitcoin mining matters
Bitcoin mining holds significance as it introduced a completely decentralized and secure system for exchanging digital value, powered by Proof of Work. When taking a look at environmental enterprises mining Bitcoin, or any energy operation for that matter, not all energy consumption is equal. The source of energy matters. However, energy consumption wouldn't be a concern, if an effort employed 100 renewable energy sources. Bitcoin consumes an energy blend that's roughly doubly as sustainable as the United States electric grid. Plus, the impulses that Bitcoin creates to induce further renewable energy products are industry changing. As a request for frugality, it's vital to consider the profitable productivity generated by Bitcoin or any other exertion per unit of energy consumed.
For example, if Bitcoin competes with gold as a store of value, one may wonder whether the energy expended in Bitcoin mining generates further profitable value per unit of energy than gold mining. Also, if Bitcoin is contending against traditional finance as a payment system or credit source, it's worth considering whether Bitcoin produces further profitable value per unit of energy than current fiscal services. The answers to these questions may come as a surprise. It's important to note that while Bitcoin's energy consumption isn't insignificant, it pales in comparison to other energy uses that aren't subject to scrutiny.
Typical comparisons to Christmas lights or household appliances. But the issue at hand, which is a significant concern. Nonetheless, what's apparent is that in 2022, Bitcoin's consumption of 188 terawatt- hours out of a global aggregate of 150,000 terawatt- hours was attained more sustainably than the average operation. Illustrating that, the energy blend employed by Bitcoin mining last time was 59 sustainably sourced. Which is in line with the description handed by the International Energy Agency, which includes wind, hydro, solar, nuclear, and carbon equipoises.
On the other side, the US energy grid as a whole, which is only 31 sustainably sourced, Bitcoin mining relies on a more significant proportion of sustainable energy sources. Still, the impact of Bitcoin on renewable energy products is maybe indeed more critical than its current energy consumption. Bitcoin miners are incentivized to seek out the cheapest sources of energy, which frequently come from redundant capacity, similar as energy lost in transmission and distribution or from renewable sources like wind and solar.
For example, in 2020, California saw half a million megawatt- hours of solar product go to waste due to exceeding demand, and the US grid loses thousands of terawatts annually due to hamstrung transmission. Bitcoin miners can take advantage of these redundant capacity sources by setting up operations, thereby turning them into profitable gambles through Bitcoin mining.
This has the implication of making preliminarily empty gambles, similar to solar energy products, profitable. In other words, Bitcoin can play a part in adding the use of sustainable energy sources like wind and solar, reducing the need for government subsidies. Also, Bitcoin mining has secondary goods, including incentivizing grid stabilization, perfecting ASIC chip effectiveness, and developing new technologies like absorption cooling, and electricity production.
There is a notion that we can enjoy all the benefits of blockchain technology without the energy consumption by transitioning to Proof-of-Stake protocols (POS). Still, POS isn't a replacement for Proof- of- work (POW), which serves a different purpose.
The crucial question is whether Bitcoin's electricity consumption justifies the value it produces. In comparison to the global financial services, Bitcoin uses significantly lower energy per unit of value. Despite concerns about Bitcoin's energy consumption, Senators like Cynthia Loomis argue that the Bitcoin mining industry has made significant strides in environmental sustainability. Bitcoin mining relies on 59% renewable energy, whereas the non-mining economy only uses 12% renewable energy.
Likewise, Bitcoin mining has the implicit ability to address environmental challenges that other diligence can not. For example, methane emigrations from remote places can be reclaimed through Bitcoin mining, creating a profitable operation while also reducing dangerous emigrations. In Wyoming, for example, Bitcoin miners are connecting to vented gas from oil and gas wells to power their operations. This innovative approach keeps carbon out of the air while producing a valuable product like Bitcoin. There's a lot of good incentives for our environment in the field of Bitcoin mining, even if it may not always be visible to the public eye.
In 2022, President Biden and the White House published a report on Bitcoin mining and the terrain, which stated that landing vented methane to induce electricity could have a positive impact on climate change. Recent exploration and data reveal that the global Bitcoin mining emits lower CO2 than computer games and holiday lights. When comparing Bitcoin mining to other diligence around the world, we see that it's an inconsequential target. The energy consumption of Bitcoin mining is similar to that of computer games and vacation lights, which aren't generally considered significant pitfalls to the earth. To make a real environmental impact, we should concentrate on perfecting the energy effectiveness of housing, followed by road vehicles, non-residential structures, and other high electricity users.
When considering energy operations, it's important to compare not just the US, but also with other countries. While some newspapers may compare Bitcoin mining to lower countries with lower emissions and energy consumption. A map comparing primary energy consumers of the world reveals that countries like China and the United States are the largest directors, and consumers of energy. As we move down this map on an exponential scale, the figures drop vastly until we reach the 275 terawatt hours used by the global Bitcoin mining network, which is an inconsequential amount of energy compared to the world's giants.. While at the same time a significant amount of this energy use, needed for the Bitcoin blockchain is from sustainable sources. According to data from the Bitcoin mining council members, 63.8 percent of their energy operation is from sustainable sources, while the entire global Bitcoin mining industry stands at 58.8 percent.
Comparing the sustainable energy blend of Bitcoin mining to countries similar to Germany, the EU, and South Korea shows that Bitcoin mining is surpassing the utmost of these countries. This is because Bitcoin mining isn't tied to a specific position and has a flexible cargo. Also, Bitcoin is incentivized to seek out underutilized and overlooked sources of sustainable energy in order to reduce costs. These sources are frequently unfit to power the high energy consumption set up in large metropolitan areas like Germany or South Korea.
It's thus not surprising that the hash rate and security of Bitcoin continue to reach all- time highs as further people turn on their mining machines.
The efficiency of Bitcoin mining is expected to improve at a fast pace in the coming years, with the Bitcoin council estimating a two to threefold improvement in mining efficiency over the next few years, followed by a six-fold improvement over the following four years. This improvement is due to advancements in hardware and the economic incentive to use energy more efficiently. As a result, Bitcoin mining is expected to become significantly more energy efficient each year.
Final thoughts
Like I mentioned in the rest of this article. Bitcoin mining, although using a lot of energy, should actually have a net positive impact on the transition towards renewables and a sustainable energy world. Not only is it already doing a lot of great work for this energy transition. But it is at the same time also setting a new global economic standard that will protect people from inflation. However, like most Bitcoiners will tell you. We are still early. Which also means that the way of the mining industry and its incentives are also early. So expect a lot of radical change in the whole Bitcoin industry as we move forward to a digital and more sustainable world.
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