Good point, but can't I leave that bit to the geniuses who invented Bitcoin?!

As I understand this happens already in some places: water is pumped uphill to high ground lakes where it is stored until energy is needed, then it is allowed to flow back downhill turning turbines and generating electricity. So your idea is not new and definitely a good one!

Hi, according to Wikipedia the Bitcoin mining process "requires intense computing power, electricity and significant investment as it solves hashes through bruteforce to verify transactions and add them to the network's transaction log." So I was wondering if bitcoins and the bitcoin exchange mechanism could be adapted or replaced by a currency that was more environmentally friendly?

Some ideas:

Mine "Carbon"

By seeking out carbon dioxide capturing programs and reselling the carbon certified as captured. "Carbon" could work as a clean exchange mechanism. A currency and exchange mechanism measured in grams (or kilos, tonnes etc) of CO2 or equivalent captured.

Mine Clean Energy

By seeking out wind farms and so on and reselling the energy certified as clean. A currency and exchange mechanism measured in Joules (or kilojoules, megajoules, etc) of clean energy produced.

Mine Environmental Data

Bitcoin is harnessing enormous computing power, why not put that power to good use, distributed computing of climate models and so on. A currency measured in bits (or bytes, kilobytes etc) of data crushed by computation.