The carbon footprint of cryptocurrency has been widely discussed, as shown by Monday’s discussions in the European Parliament on Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining. Even though the “EU ban on bitcoin” did not pass, the energy discussion will continue.
Those who study renewable energy see two ways in which crypto can effectively address its critics. Firstly, by creating demand for alternative energy sources; secondly, by utilizing blockchain technology to communicate directly with power grids in a transparent manner.
According to deputy director at the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) and co-founder of Zero Labs, Doug Miller, this strategy could revolutionize bitcoin in a way that most consumers are only beginning to realize.
There two roles in the cryptocurrency industry. Mr Miller said in an interview with CoinDesk: “One is being a buyer in clean energy markets. The other is providing new technologies for these markets. I think all bitcoin miners and those who hold bitcoin should pursue this, because relative to the value of bitcoin, it’s negligible. It’s a way to actually deliver on all of this promise that bitcoin claims to offer in terms of solving society’s problems.”
The PoW consensus mechanism in bitcoin (BTC) uses a lot of electricity. Experts have recently estimated how many trees would have to be planted to alleviate the energy demands of minting and storing bitcoins as well as NFTs which are on Ethereum that also uses POW.
Photo by Fré Sonneveld
