Bitcoin mining is good for the environment
bookmark this video for whenever somebody asks you about Bitcoin mining because in this
video I want to educate you on three things number one the good Bitcoin mining is doing on
a global scale country by country number two the good that Bitcoin mining is doing in the US
state by state and number three the good Bitcoin mining is doing in general argument by argument
like comment share this video on social media if you want to help get the word out in this video
I'm going to try and convince you 21 reasons why Bitcoin mining is good let's start on a global
scale Bitcoin mining is helping 1 600 families in the mountains of Malawi Africa get cheaper
hydroelectric energy the formula is this extra sustainable electricity plus starklink internet
connectivity plus Bitcoin mining profitability equals cheaper energy for the Community I'm up
here in the remote Southern mountains of Malawi and you can see these beautiful rivers
that are feeding a Powerhouse 1 600 families are connected to the power that
comes from this Powerhouse and two others this one has 50 kilowatts of excess energy so
we've come in to work with the power producer to make use of that energy for Bitcoin mining
which makes them more self-sustaining and it can also just increase the livelihoods or decrease the
cost of power for those who are connected Bitcoin is powered by volcanoes the tipaka volcano in
El Salvador produces more clean sustainable geothermal energy than the local community can
even use mining Bitcoin with the extra energy helps lower their costs and balance their electric
grid in Lebanon the Lebanese local currency as in the currency the regular people use to buy sell
trade save has lost more than 95 percent of its value pensions are worthless banks are shut down
and ATMs are out of cash people are surviving by mining Bitcoin listen to this after Decades of
war and bad spending Decisions by the government lebanon's economy is in ruin I'm speaking to
people who have had their life savings wiped out there are fuel shortages and power cuts a local
currency that's lost 95 percent of its value and crucially money trapped in the bank people are
literally robbing banks at gunpoint to demand access to their own cash and because of this a
sort of Shadow crypto economy has emerged so we're talking about locals mining for Bitcoin Dogecoin
and Litecoin to earn money because they can't find work others are getting paid in Bitcoin by finding
freelance gigs on Reddit and then treating Bitcoin like their bank because they think it's the safest
way to store their savings overwhelmingly what I keep hearing is that people are desperate for
connection to money that actually makes sense and decentralized digital currencies that are outside
the reach of bankers and politicians makes a whole lot more sense than the Lebanese Lira right
now all right so Mike let's talk a little bit about some of those crypto Minds you mentioned if
there's widespread power cuts and fuel shortages how does this actually make sense as a way to make
money so it makes sense because of hydropower so in certain pockets of the country like in the
shoof mountain range with this which is south of Lebanon there is abundant and inexpensive
electricity being harnessed from the laktani river now I spoke to Ahmed Abu dare he's 22 years
old and he runs an expansive mining Network across the country now he has 40 employees working from
him some of his mining Farms are actually running on solar power closer to the Syrian border
and what I find especially compelling about his business model is the fact that he allows
people to remotely invest in his operation and then earn a monthly dividend in crypto and some
of his customers are at the opposite end of the country from where these Farms are some are in
Syria turkey and Egypt it's a really interesting setup tepco the largest Power Company in Japan is
mining Bitcoin tepco now uses their Surplus renew energy to mine Bitcoin helping lower energy costs
for consumers increasing profits and decarbonizing the energy grid Bitcoin saved the day in Costa
Rica for this hydroelectrical plant in the middle of the forest of Costa Rica this was shut down
for nine months because it could no longer make a profit it's now back online generating sustainable
energy and Mining Bitcoin defunct hydro plant in Costa Rica is getting a new lease on life by
powering crypto Mining and bringing clean energy to a rapidly expanding business more than 650
machines from 150 customers operate non-stop from this plant next to the post River just outside of
Capital City San Jose Costa Rica generates nearly all of its energy from Green sources where the
state has a monopoly on energy distribution the company invested five hundred thousand dollars to
venture into hosting digital mining computers is North Vancouver set to become the first city
in the world heated by Bitcoin mining this will create heat for the city using sustainable
energy and Bitcoin mining to lower the cost Zimbabwe Bitcoin is used to crowdsource solar
panels in Zimbabwe 1900 individuals across 98 countries funded the nimway fresh project at
grower of berries and vegetables made up of 250 small holder Farmers this was only made possible
thanks to bitcoin Intel the superconductor giant is building energy efficient Bitcoin mining
chips Exxon Mobil uses Bitcoin mining to reduce harmful emissions now let's focus on
the U.S Bitcoin mining is cleaning up toxic waste and saving taxpayers 5 billion dollars at
least in this Pennsylvania Town check this out well it could be part of the future of digital
currency or it could be a new way to clean up the environment or it could be both Action News
Anchorman O'Donnell pays a visit to the Panther Creek Plant in Corbin County PA which uses the
waste from old coal mines to power a Bitcoin mine it is 2 800 miles away from Silicon Valley
and yet the borough of nesquahoning tucked into a valley in Pennsylvania coal country
is the site of America's newest large-scale Bitcoin mine what do you think about the Bitcoin
mine here didn't know they had a Bitcoin mine I thought it was a minor years ago but as far as
what you call it I never heard of it that way publicly traded stronghold digital mining
purchased the Panther Creek energy facility a defunct coal plant in town to power its Bitcoin
mine energy industry veteran Bill Spence says he came up with the idea to make money on digital
currency while also cleaning up his home state of coal refuse I think I'm curious painfully curious
you get the Bitcoin you get rid of that absolutely there's a direct correlation in art with us
with Bitcoin and cleaning up the environment workers transport the coal waste from several
sites the largest being the sweiersville dump site near Wilkes-Barre they separate usable
coal from the massive piles and use it to generate electricity some power is sold back to
the grid for profit most is used to power and cool this field of computer servers all hooked
up to the blockchain to help process Bitcoin transactions all around the world the blockchain
and automated computer Ledger for Bitcoin grants stronghold fractions of Bitcoin as a thank you in
return that is the digital mining park there are 80 trailers on site each containing 64 computer
servers all of which have been mining Bitcoin for the two hours that we've been here and in the span
of that time stronghold estimates that they had mined about one Bitcoin which according to today's
prices means they earn more than nineteen thousand one hundred dollars it's a more sustainable way
to do transactions Bitcoin mining is coming to New Hampshire governor of New Hampshire recommends
the department of energy review how Bitcoin mining can help stabilize the energy grid build more
sustainable generation projects and lower the cost for consumers governor of Texas says Bitcoin is
good for the power grid we are promoting Bitcoin we are advancing it we are providing a platform
for it Bitcoin is The Cutting Edge of innovation in the world we see the the future of what Bitcoin
of what blockchain means uh to the entire world Texas wants to be the centerpiece of that and so
we we're promoting it we are advancing it but I will say we're providing the platform uh for for
those who are involved in blockchain for those who are involved in Bitcoin to make sure that they're
going to have a location they can come to that does not have the sense of friction that comes
along with high regulation so that makes the ease of business far better and it promotes that
Innovation so what we will continue advancing in Bitcoin and blockchain is The Cutting Edge of
innovation in the world right now Bitcoin mining is helping balance Texas's energy grid and is
driving more renewable energy opportunities into Texas the CEO of Texas energy grid Brad
Jones explains this at Texas blockchain Summit so for many years orcot was had been looking
for loads of scale that could really respond in a demand responsive way that could help us
balance our grid back in 2015 you may remember we started the process of setting up loads in
skid it was through I think about 2016 or 2017 no one showed up at first there just wasn't any
loads that of scale that could really help us in that market but it's here now and it's a great
thing for helping us to balance the grid helping us to manage all of our resources uh the the
Bitcoin has the nature of really turning down when prices begin to rise in a way that we
can give that power back to other consumers and at the same time as we bring more and more
Renewables into the state it becomes a driver of more Renewables because right now if we bring
in all the Renewables that are signed up to want to come to our state there will be a significant
depression of pricing during the day by having Bitcoin there to assist and to stabilize those
prices throughout the day it's going to drive more Renewables into our system and that's
good for Texas green Bitcoin energy coming to Montana a company wants to build a massive
solar project in Montana of course it's for crypto it also promises green electricity for
the rest of the Montana Community the oldest hydroelectric facility in the United States
was going to be turned off forever built in 1897 Mechanicville hydroelectric plant could
no longer make a profit Bitcoin mining saved it now let's talk about the arguments why is
Bitcoin mining good the United States House committee on Financial Services wrote
a letter to the EPA in this letter it says quote most importantly digital assets and
their related mining activities are essential in the economic future of the United States
Bitcoin keeps things warm Bitcoin mining is keeping this 40-room hotel warm during
the winter and lowering energy costs this person found a way to help stray cats in the
winter by using the warmth of Bitcoin mining and earning a profit at the same time who likes fish
by using the warmth of Bitcoin mining Engineers are able to build profitable and sustainable
hydroponic fish hatcheries and heating systems [Music] [Applause] heat your home heat your barn recycle the
warmth of Bitcoin mining and grow flowers still not convinced let us convince you this
testimony in front of U.S Congress explains how Bitcoin mining is a net positive Brian Brooks
thanks so much for having me to your to talk about the energy impact of blockchain technology and
related cryptocurrency activities and particularly Bitcoin mining Bitcoin is important because it
introduced the world to the concept of a fully decentralized secure trustless system of financial
value exchange that turns on proof of work not as a necessary evil but as a positive feature of
its design and I look forward to exploring these concepts with you today my name is Brian Brooks
and I spent much of my career in traditional Finance culminating my service as acting U.S
controller of the currency I also served as Chief legal officer of coinbase and currently
serve as CEO of bid Fury group bid Fury directly and through our subsidiaries is one of the most
energy efficient Bitcoin miners in the US and globally more about that in a few moments I view
the subcommittee's topic today through two lenses first in assessing environmental concerns about
Bitcoin mining or frankly any other energy use not all not all energy consumption is created
equal would we care for example that an activity consumes a lot of energy if a hundred percent of
that energy came from renewable sources presumably not so if Bitcoin consumes an energy mix that is
roughly twice as sustainable as the U.S electric grid as a whole that is a more relevant fact than
the mere amount of energy that it uses and even more important are the incentives that Bitcoin
creates to generate more renewable production the second lens is we're a market economy in
this country so we should think deeply about the economic productivity created by Bitcoin
or anything else per unit of energy consumed thus for example if Bitcoin competes as a store
of value with gold does the energy used in Bitcoin mining produce more economic value per unit of
energy than gold mining or if Bitcoin competes with traditional Finance as a means of payment
or as a source of credit does Bitcoin produce more economic value per unit of energy than
financial services the answers might surprise you as I'll point out in a moment now to be
sure bitcoin's energy consumption is not trivial but it is very small compared to many other energy
uses that no one questions now I'm not going to belabor the usual comparisons that you hear to
clothes dryers or holiday lights or that sort of thing that would trivialize an issue that the
committee is talking about which is an important issue but what is clear is that the 188 terawatt
hours used by Bitcoin last year out of about 155 000 terawatt hours consumed globally for all
uses was sourced more sustainably than other uses on average so for example the Energy Mix used
by Bitcoin mining was about 58 sustainably sourced last year sustainable under the International
Energy agency definition including wind Hydro solar nuclear and with carbon offsets compared to
31 percent for the U.S energy grid as a whole in bit Fury's specific numbers are in line with those
rough ratios now even more relevant than bitcoin's current energy use is the incentive effect
it has on the future production of renewable energy Bitcoin miners seek low energy costs and
the lowest cost always comes from excess capacity which can include wind and solar energy and energy
lost in the transmission and distribution process among other things as just one example in 2020
in California where I live one and a half million megawatt hours of solar production was curtailed
meaning wasted because production exceeded demand and the U.S grid loses literally thousands of
terawatts a year due to inefficient transmission now because Bitcoin miners are easily able
to locate near the source of production these kinds of excess capacity sources can be turned
into economic value through Bitcoin mining and this has the effect of taking what can be
an unprofitable business for example solar and making it profitable put differently if we
want more wind and solar in this country with less need for government subsidy Bitcoin can be
part of the solution now Bitcoin mining produces a series of other secondary effects which I
detail in my written testimony these include grid stabilization incentives to improve Asic chip
efficiency by multiple orders of magnitude and new technology development for things like immersion
cooling something that my company has innovated now an idea sometimes circulates that somehow
we could have all of the positives without the energy usage if we would just abolish proof
of work and migrate blockchains exclusively to proof-of-stake protocols as I noted in my
written testimony proof of stake is terrific but it is not a substitute for proof of work
which exists for an entirely different set of purposes and without which Innovations like
decentralized Finance would likely not exist let me just conclude by comparing Bitcoin to the
economic value of other uses of energy because that ultimately is the question for the committee
Bitcoin uses a certain amount of electricity to produce a trillion dollars of value and what
you will find as noted in some of my testimony is that the aviation industry uses something
like 50 times more energy per unit of value than does Bitcoin the Global Financial Services and
insurance industry uses roughly the same amount of energy per unit and you will note there's a
little bit of glitchy data at the very end of my written testimony which you've corrected now in
the record but I look forward to talking to you about the economic framework within which energy
usage for Bitcoin mining and other usages ought to be talked about U.S senator Cynthia Loomis says
don't judge Bitcoin mining as an energy bad guy there's a lot of innovation going on that proves
otherwise listen to this there was research at the University of Cambridge that showed that Bitcoin
mining uses about 40 percent renewable energy and in the non-bitcoin mining economy it's only
12 percent so Bitcoin mining is already more uh environmentally uh adapted uh to uh non-uh
carbon emitting uh energy sources let's talk about methane emissions methane emissions come
from places where no other Technologies can reach there are no pipes connected and it's
too remote of a location to build anything else Bitcoin mining recycles harmful methane
emissions and turns that into profit foreign we're seeing some real innovation in that
field for example in my state of Wyoming where oil and gas is produced when you drill an
oil well a gas well for a while it's not hooked up to a pipeline so the product especially
gas is being vented into the air well now these Bitcoin miners are pulling in a trailer
hooking up to that vented gas and using it to mine Bitcoin so they're mining to help mining
exactly and doing it in a way that keeps carbon out of the air and uses it to produce another
product Bitcoin so there's a lot of innovation that's happening behind the scenes President
Biden and the White House released a report last year on Bitcoin mining and the environment
this was a quote from said report crypto mining operations the capture vented methane to produce
electricity can yield positive results for the climate new research and data shows that the
global Bitcoin mining industry produces less CO2 emissions than both computer games and Holiday
Lights here we're consuming or comparing Global Bitcoin mining versus other Industries around the
world and again what we see here is that Bitcoin mining is really an inconsequential Target the
reality is is that Bitcoin mining emissions are or consumption of energy is is primarily closest
to things like computer games and Holiday Lights these are two things that you really don't hear
people talking about as overwhelming threats to the planet as things that are areas of concern
yet their energy consumption is very similar 275 to 214 terawatt hours between Bitcoin mining
and computer games again reminding people that if if we are going to be going after you know
Industries this is a very inconsequential one you know if you have a one percent Improvement
in Energy Efficiency amongst those residential buildings category it will more than offset
the entire energy consumption for the entire Global Bitcoin mining industry as a whole
and so residential buildings are going to be a much more impactful Target followed by road
vehicles non-residential building and other forms of travel Bitcoin energy is sustainable Bitcoin
is estimated to use 58.9 percent of sustainable energy this makes Bitcoin mining one of the most
sustainable Industries in the world don't believe me check out how Bitcoin compares to sustainable
energy from the top countries when we look at our energy use we can break it down to not just as
a Global Perspective but also in comparison with other countries this is something that we've seen
repeatedly in news articles where Bitcoin mining is compared with relatively small countries and
small levels of energy usage and consumption but what we see here when we look at the chart
comparing it to the primary energy consumers of the world and really you know countries like
China and the United States are are the largest producers and consumers of energy and really if a
chart goes in an exponential scale downwards as we continue moving down this chart these numbers
would drop off considerably further until we finally hit that 275 Global Bitcoin mining the
the real quality here is that this is just an inconsequential amount of energy usage in addition
to being an inconsequential amount of energy usage we're also using a high amount of sustainable
energy here we have a chart that shows both the Bitcoin mining council member data as well as
the extrapolations for the entire Global Bitcoin mining industry as a whole and they stand at 63.8
percent for the Bitcoin mining council members and 58.8 percent for the entire industry here when we
compare that across these different uh countries from Germany and EU South Korea we can see that
Bitcoin mining is really outpacing most of these countries in terms of their sustainable energy mix
and utilizing the sustainable power resources and the reason for that is because Bitcoin mining is
very location agnostic and it's very flexible load it's also highly incentivized to seek out the most
overlooked and underutilized sources of electric and energy in order to remove and reduce cost
so we are incentivized as industry players to go after these remote energy sources and these
sustainable energy sources that simply can't power a lot of the energy consumption that takes
place in a place like Germany or South Korea in large metropolitan areas get your tickets to
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bitcoin's hash rate Bitcoin security continues to climb towards all-time highs as people continue to
turn on their mining machines even Goldman Sachs starting to notice Bitcoin top performing asset
of the year if you got value in today's video join the altcoin daily team subscribe hit the like
button support the channel support the video and let us know going forward which cryptocurrencies
do you want us to cover in future videos because we cover the whole cryptocurrency Market thanks
to documenting BTC on Twitter for putting together today's research give them a follow in conclusion
here really the Bitcoin mining Energy Efficiency is improving tremendously fast uh we're estimating
as a council somewhere between a three and two times Improvement in mining efficiency over the
next couple of years and following that about a six-fold improvement over the following four
years after that when you combine that with the fact that there is a having built into the Satoshi
protocol that reduces the energy consumption and will reduces the incentive to consume electricity
basically in half every four years really the the guaranteed or the combination of of dramatically
Improvement in Hardware as well as the reduction in in energy through the economic incentive
of the having means that Bitcoin money is guaranteed to be dramatically more energy
efficient in the next eight years and and basically every year Rolling forward this is
not a trend that is ever expected to to change
