Bitcoin Forum

I was reading an article which explains that bitcoin might be able to run on a clean energy technology to avoid claims such as bitcoin uses a lot of energy which increases the global energy consumption.

It says that bitcoin can run its functions using decarbonized energy systems and is merely being over criticized. While other industries are producing the most carbon emission, the critics are after bitcoin!

My question is that what other forms of energy is bitcoin using for its mining?
Are there any other possible solutions to decrease bitcoin’s energy consumption?

https://theconversation.com/stop-worrying-about-how-much-energy-bitcoin-uses-97591

a bitcoin miner is not an energy producer or an energy company! a bitcoin miner is simply a customer of energy companies and is using what they are providing them. if they burn fossil fuel and give the produced energy to bitcoin miners you can't say bitcoin isn't green. you should say energy companies aren't green!

what is the solution? go to these energy companies and petition why they are not using cleaner forms of energy. this is not something that bitcoin can solve!

Bitcoin miners are strictly profit-motivated and are looking for the cheapest energy.
I studied the mining sector and the energy sector. You can  find my study bellow:

https://medium.com/@jcbusnel/bitcoin-as-an-environmental-subsidy-to-alternative-energy-1e91c427ab9e

I don't think the energy bitcoin miners spending is not a good way for our old world.
We need a better and a cleaner way for the world.

There lot of alternative energy we can use to mining bitcoin, but do we have the source for that? will it profitable? I mean if you already in a country that has the green energy you good to go but if you build it from scratch that will take time and more money, cause buying solar panel ain't cheap so wind turbine

If we look at the situation as a whole, it is theoretically possible to transfer bitcoin mining to renewable resources, but this is only theoretically, because renewable sources of electricity are not even in great demand now, because there is no adequate funding for the development of such a technical base and in the near future  it will be because it will reduce the consumption of oil than the oil tycoons will be dissatisfied with.  On the other hand, bitcoin mining does not use a lot of global electricity there.  The Internet has free access to all the necessary information about approximate calculations of electricity consumption by miners, which is approximately 1,100 MW, while the share of world consumption is 158,714,610 GW, this ratio looks like 1/16000.  

So it seems to me that opponents of Bitcoin are clearly overdone with forcing the situation associated with Bitcoin, because energy consumption for servicing Bitcoin leaves very little electricity!

Good point, we can only use what is provided to us. It is up to the energy companies to
generate power by greener renewable means, solar, wind and wave.

An electric vehicle has to draw power from somewhere, that power may be generated
by burning oil, gas or coal.

Anything can run on renewable and green energy, and it is not. But you dont see anybody questioning that other operations. Do you wonder why? Why is somebody promoting only bitcoin as a bad player? In whose interest is that?

The more these critics press the energy issue on bitcoin, the more people will ignore it. It is not the miner's fault that they are using energy that comes from fossil fuels, but rather the providers that supplied them with such. Some operators have already stepped up their game and used hydroelectric power on their operations, and these critics don't even care to include those on their reports. Nuclear energy is always available to be used, but the amount of building an infrastructure would cost much, that's why most energy companies tend not to do it. It's greener and cost-efficient in the long run, but then fossil fuels and coal are still being used for most of the world's power.

The blame has to be thrown somewhere, and bitcoin is the perfect candidate for that.

This blame game needs to end somehow. We need to tell them that bitcoin is no ways going to be the scapegoat for the high energy consumption, corruption or any other criticism!!!

this has never been about blame, nor about energy and definitely not about its greenness!

from the first time this discussion began it has always been a new form of attack on bitcoin trying to undermine its value. if you read between the lines of all the previous discussions all of them are basically saying bitcoin is worthless so it is wasting energy.

I don't know where this fascination about bitcoin and its energy consumption comes from sometimes. we live in a world that in comparison there are far bigger industries that are consuming a lot more energy than bitcoin and are actually wasting a lot of it. but it seems like certain people are only interested in talking about bitcoin and the small energy that it is using to provide the one of a kind service that is benefiting everyone around the globe!

should we know if this is the matter, of course as a millennial human, we look for the right solution to overcome it, so that it can run well, not blame. we know BTC is a technological innovation for payment devices

Since bitcoin technology is relying on proof of work system of operation, energy consumption is really huge for it should run 24/7 using computers all over the world. There are some articles that I've read online stating that bitcoin's energy consumption reached at 1% of the worlds energy consumption.

There are some counties just like China who are into solar and wind farms. This is what we call the green energy, an alternative to using traditional energy sources for mining bitcoin. This is one way of preserving the environment from toxic by product from those used energy caused by bitcoin mining.

This type of mining using solar and wind not only can help the environment but also the owner of the farm for we all know that energy is very expensive if we do mine bitcoin.

yes I think it's true, that the miner is just a customer of an energy provider company, where the miners are free to do whatever they want to that energy.

Bitcoin Miners are consumers just like any other. They do not produce energy or are they related to an energy company. They are using what is provided to them. If fossil fuel is turned to energy and being provided by the energy companies to consumers you can't blame miners about not going green as they aren't in control of it. The energy companies are. And if you're looking for a solution to this then why not contact the energy companies themselves.

Not only for bitcoin, we should use clean energy for all industries. Yes mining coins requires a lot of energy and so does the others industries. If there is a talk of new, safe and green energy; I think every industry should start using that; not just bitcoin.

I think this energy consumption aspect of bitcoin is over elaborated and it is still part of international conspiracy against bitcoin in other to have it destroyed. There are other business that produce more ozone depleting substances and they are not going after them because of the interest they have in such ventures. Bitcoin miners can look out for green energy sources like solar, wind and if possible hydro sources also. There is a new antimeter that Japan produced that consume only 45watts of energy. I think the energy issues will soon be solved.

I guess hydro power projects with mining facilitates can be best shot in this one. I am working on a project called as SAM, where these guys have created a cubes which are in built with graphic unit miners. These cubes are also placed in Alps county where the temp is always in minus so no need maintain the temp.
How they are going to deliver the energy to these so called SAM cubes ? Well they are going to set up their own hydro power projects and solely be available for the SAM cubes mining only. I guess this is one of the best shot for producing environment friendly model of mining equipments. Its more or less self sustaining stuff.

Bitcoin mining can save lot of electricity when we compare with the energy required for the banks everywhere and also bitcoin miners can be much more effective in the future when the companies can produce the loc consumptions ASICs,And lot of people uses renewable sources like wind and water to produce electricity which is good thing right.

I wish there would have been big institutes working on this issue. I mean if worlds biggest farms ever thought to come together and invest in green energy project then they can just go into icy place and set up their whole mining farm from where the worlds blockchain will get benefited. I mean only one place to be fixed for this project and then people from all over the globe can visit that place set up their own rigs over there and use the clean energy source. For example winds, ocean, solar etc. We can call it as Miner's City or something like that. Whether it is an individual or big farmers, all of them can unite and make such county to reduce the pollution, huge energy consumption and stuff like that.

There are many farms in production that will use clean energy for mining. Solar power and wind powered farms are going to be the new norm. The setup will cost more but in the long term they will earn more profits

Well, it can't be said for sure that bitcoin is green. Or in that case every money is green, it's just the action of the investors' and the authorities'. But yup, it can be used in a eco friendly way.

That is just the theory and we are still using normal electricity to exploit Bitcoin. The allegations about Bitcoin mining are absolutely true but this is a great industry and there is no stopping anyone who wants to get rich. These are just negative news and just want to criticize Bitcoin. I do not like such articles.

A Bitcoin miner is simply a customer of energy companies and is using what they are providing them. A Bitcoin miner is not an energy producer. Bitcoin miners are strictly profit-motivated and are looking for the cheapest energy.

It is hardly the miners fault that they are using energy produced by burning fossil fuel. They are just regular customers who are using what they are getting. If any one is to blamed, it should be the producers who are producing energy by burning fossil fuels.

I think a couple of examples should highlight the alternative power sources that are being used :

https://www.ccn.com/new-york-firm-gives-old-hydroelectric-dam-new-life-as-bitcoin-mining-farm/

https://news.bitcoin.com/oregons-cheap-hydropower-attracts-a-swarm-of-bitcoin-miners/

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@jycloud9/china-builds-a-hydropower-plant-for-bitcoin-mining-2017622t4636806z

I also see people moving their mining operation to colder areas to reduce their cooling cost and that also helps to reduce their electricity cost.

The energy being provided to the miners are variable, as it differs from country to country. European countries are leading the charge with wind turbine energies, so mining machines are fed with energy produced through these turbines.

A bitcoin miner is a merely a customer to the company who is providing the energy so as such a miner does not produce or wastes energy. The company who provides energy to millions of people is to the culprit. This is a problem that bitcoin cannot solve, the only thing bitcoin can do is to find a way to cunsume less energy.

The simple solution is not to use these kinds of energy sources to produce electricity. Bitcoin miners are using electricity, they are not responsible for the damage created while producing electricity. Using green energy sources will solve the problem.

Some people just have plain border line hatred towards bitcoin. While lots of other stuffs are destroying the planet, they find bitcoin guilty. It's true ASICs and other PCs releases heat but they are so insignificant compared to even fossil fuel consumers.

There is a lot of alternative energy we can use to make bitcoin digging, but as you know, such energy is not cheap, so if you use them they can increase costs.

This issue is abdebate of the bitcoin community. Bitcoin mining is indeed need a lot of energy that somehow contribute in the global warming of earth (am i being exaggerate here?). I also read some articles that if solar energy can be an alternative in bitcoin mining. But i didnt read any answer or study that this would be possible. So i guess as of now mining is not adviseable especially now that bitcoin is not in good value. Its like just mining without any profit at all.

bitcoin miner consumption almost similar to an 1.5hp air conditioner. there are many consumer electrical item consumer even more. the criticism are basically not valid. those accusation is mostly by banker and financial institution to villainise bitcoin as environmental damaging demon. its like a thief brand other as thief.

Well I think that using reusable energy is not a question of doing it for environment, really (although it is very important too), but in order to have a good business case an entrepreneur needs to locate his/her mining operation in a location with access to renewable/cheap energy and renewable cooling.

I want to answer this question but in comparison methode. Still energy that used for bitcoin is much lower than energy that bank have been use. Bank consume electricity for their office, ATM, internet banking and money(to pay their employees, operational and to manage money). We know that mining activities need cooling, so if those minning industries are move to areas near the poles that are still has electricity supplay then the energy can be reduced because no need electricity for cooling. Is this make sense?

I will again share this interesting article I found months ago:

(https://phys.org/news/2018-08-energy-bitcoin.html)


I think we can say that the author has some authority to debunked what have been circulating in the last couple of years. That bitcoin mining consumes a lot of energy and it's supposedly harmful effects.

And just like what @Herbert2020 have said, its really an attack on bitcoin per se and they are just hiding their arguments against it through this whole bitcoin uses more energy that can be harmful to the environment.

You can also take note how much banking systems uses energy in comparison to bitcoin mining.

Miners do not generate energy for their consumption and they are just customers of enegy suppliers, like us. When you look from this perspective, such claims that bitcoin uses a lot of energy and increases the global energy consumption does not make any sense. Why don't we discuss about energy suppliers which they don't change their facilities in order to generate energy by using cleaner methods. I guess, there are some groups who are trying to find anything which they can blame cryptocurrencies or miners.

Maybe clean energy means the energy which is eco-friendly to the environments. There are many companies producing more carbon emission than bitcoin mining, they cannot say bitcoin is the most using global energy consumption. the solution is to using more green energy to all of industries in the world, not only for bitcoin mining.

for current miners maybe the energy that gets from bitcoin is energy energy, we can see how so many miners waste their electricity in a day how much does it cost, well bitcoin must discuss that energy

Bitcoin miners use electricity like many other users and pay for it to power companies. At the same time, it does not matter for them - this electric power was obtained from thermal or nuclear power plants or from alternative sources. If it is possible to use electricity from solar panels or electric generators, then the miners will not refuse this.

I agree, one major argument I hear from most people is the energy required for mining. Currently, yes, its very expansive and carbon foot-printed so to transition to carbon free energy is not easy, plus it would initially be limited to certain places with lots of sun, water or wind.