During the last three months, there’s been a significant focus on the effects bitcoin mining has on the global environment. While many have claimed bitcoin mining is bad for the environment and many others have stressed that it affects the environment in a positive way, either way, most are relying on unreliable and old data from a few years ago. On July 1, 2021, the recently formed Bitcoin Mining Council published a report that claims 56% of the hashrate uses sustainable energy resources.
Will Elon Musk Bend? Report Claims Bitcoin Miner Energy Consumption Mix 56% Sustainable
Bitcoiners are hoping Elon Musk has noticed a new report published by the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) that shows more than half of the hashrate leverages sustainable energy to mine bitcoin. BMC published the report on July 1, 2021, and as soon as it was online posts about Elon Musk changing his mind started to appear.
“Tesla said they wouldn’t again accept BTC until energy consumption reached 50% from renewables,” one Redditor said on Saturday. “Now that BTC uses 56% renewable energy, I wonder if Tesla will soon start accepting BTC again.” The ‘Tesla accepting bitcoin again’-Reddit post on r/bitcoin has clocked in more than 5,700 upvotes.
The BMC report explains that the organization collected information on miners leveraging sustainable energy from “over 32 percent of the current global Bitcoin network in its first-ever voluntary survey.” The results of the survey indicate that members of the BMC are utilizing electricity “with a 67% sustainable power mix.” The BMC report states:
Based on this data it is estimated that the global mining industry’s sustainable electricity mix had grown to approximately 56 percent, during Q2 2021, making it one of the most sustainable industries globally.
Microstrategy CEO: ‘Report Draws Data From Miners Around the World’
The data is very different from the Coinshares’ report published over three years ago and the unreliable data stemming from Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) and the digiconomist.net index. Both the digiconomist’s and Cambridge’s data have significant discrepancies between both electrical consumption estimates and both have mining maps that have not been updated since April 2020.
Microstrategy and its CEO, Michael Saylor, a member and founder of the BMC, said he was pleased to hear the results.
“I am pleased to see that the Bitcoin mining industry has come together, voluntarily, to provide critical information to the general public and policymakers, especially as it pertains to clarifying common misconceptions about the nature and scale of Bitcoin energy usage,” Saylor said. “This survey— the first quarterly release of many we expect to come— draws on data from miners around the world. As I’ve stated before, just because the Bitcoin network is decentralized doesn’t mean it has to be disorganized,” Saylor added.
The BMC is made up of members like Blockware Solutions, CCU.ai, Celsius Network, Compute North, Core Scientific, Enegix, Frontier Mining, Galaxy Digital, Hive Blockchain, Ankr, Argo Blockchain, Atnorth, Bit5ive LLC, Bitfarms, Bitfury, Bitquest, Bitriver, Blockcap, HMTech, Hut8, Marathon Digital Holdings, New Data Ventures LLC, Riot Blockchain, and SBI Crypto. BMC spokesperson Saylor also released a video that goes over some of the data found in the global mining report.
What do you think about the use of green energy in bitcoin mining jumping to 56%? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
