New Data Reveals Bitcoin Mining is Now Friendlier to the Environment

[Leviathan.007]

New data from the University of Cambridge shows that the geography of bitcoin mining has changed dramatically over the past six months following widespread repression in China.
CNBC gathered industry experts' opinions to understand their approach to large-scale mining migration and how it has changed the industry's environmental impact. They have reached the consensus that cryptocurrency mining is now more environmentally friendly than when China dominated global hash power.
The report notes that half of the world's bitcoin miners went down in a matter of days. This was confirmed by a 65% reduction in the hash rate between May 13 and June 28.

Greener Bitcoin Mining
Beijing's repressive approach has forced miners to relocate, and many have found more friendly jurisdictions, such as Texas, with lower-cost renewable energy sources.
Foundry Digital Currency CEO Mike Colyer acknowledged that this was a huge advantage for Bitcoin.
"Miners around the world are looking for stranded power that is renewable. That will always be your lowest cost. Net-net this will be a big win for bitcoin’s carbon footprint."
According to Cambridge data, approximately 17% of all bitcoin mining is currently done in North America, and at least 50% of it uses renewable energy. China, which previously accounted for more than 65 percent of the total hash, fell to 46 percent, according to data released in April, and has fallen much more since then.
Leaving China also affected much older, high-energy mining equipment that has now been permanently shut down. "A lot of high-end devices are likely to shut down forever," said Alex Brammer of Luxor Mining.
Renewable alternative energy sources such as hydropower, solar, wind, nuclear, and even gas-burning energy (excess gas burned during oil extraction) are now as desirable as burning fossil fuels.
In a related development, Verdi launched the first Green Mining Exchange (EFT) yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. The purpose of this investment product is to attract public and institutional investors focusing on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.

BTC Price Outlook
At the time of release, according to CoinGecko, Bitcoin had regained its psychological support at $ 30,000 and today trades at 3.2% at $ 30,700.
The world's leading cryptocurrency has fallen 10 percent over the past week and has now fallen 52% from its mid-April ceiling.


Source: https://cryptopotato.com/new-data-reveals-bitcoin-mining-is-friendlier-to-the-environment/

[joker_josue]

Usually these types of situations - government restrictions or calamities, tend to force the market to reinvent itself. Renewable energy has always been a viable and economical source for mining, the problem was the implementation of infrastructure that is still expensive.

But, like all over the world, investing more and more in renewable energy, miners leaving China just have to look for the best places that use this energy to install new rigs. That's why this blockade made in China, only Bitcoin came better, it will spread mining more and make mining gradually greener.

[Pmalek]

I am glad that miners are reallocating their gear from China to other regions. I will be even happier when the lost hashrate is put to good use again. it's a positive thing for the entire industry that the percentage of renewable energy is increasing and that the use of fossil fuels is dropping. Having so much mining power centralized on Chinese soil gave everyone a sense of security, but obviously it was a false sense of security. Mining from friendlier nations will surely be good for everyone.

[joker_josue]

Mining should be as spread out as possible to avoid major downturns in network processing should a serious social, political or natural disaster arise.

Another advantage I see from the fact that China's bans are going to force hardware companies to make better, more energy-efficient mining machines.

[Jating]

I think even before the Chinese shutting down the Chinese miners, bitcoin has been friendlier to the environment. There are a lot of studies since 2017 that really debunked the whole "bitcoin mining is causing harm to the environment".

And now that we have this new data in 2021, for sure it only goes to show that those who are using this sort of arguments against bitcoin is totally wrong in the beginning.

[yazher]

Thankfully, someone had clarified this issue. It seems like the controversy about Bitcoin mining is not environmentally friendly. It is just some hoax that has been said by those manipulators to destruct the positive flow of the crypto market. Nowadays, when those influencers said something about bitcoin, has some great impact on the market since most of them are newbies who don't really know the historical scenario on the market. They always panicked whenever the market goes all read for straight days and they don't know the fact that it will recover after it falls. Now that we have this issue solved, how that they will change their opinions and the crypto market will return to its ATH again.

[CryptoStar19]

The bitcoin mining council report recently just days ago emphasized that bitcoin mining uses renewable energy more than any other country or industry out there, and the rate of transitioning to renewable sources is also faster than in any other industry.

I feel that in a matter of years we are going to find that the recent environmental concerns (and the news FUD that followed) will actually have turned out to be a great thing for the crypto: it's going to accelerate the transition to more environmentally-friendly means of mining and network operation.

[Woodie]

Some of the good I see from the dismantling of China’s mining dominance is the use of green energy which has been an outcry of some of our governments and environmentalists, just hope to see it grow when all the tension comes down , and the other thing is wherever these miners will chose to settle the locals will get to learn and setup there own bitcoin mines which should see more miners getting on board soon.

[20kevin20]

Another proof the "Bitcoin is unfriendly to the environment" argument is quite useless to say the least. Tech is tech - if vapes and electronic cigarettes are unsafe for human beings yet they're all around us, why is Bitcoin mining an issue? Here we clearly see what the actual interest of those news is. They're trying to protect us from reaching financial freedom, they aren't protecting the environment.

Tech advances and things go more environment-friendly as time goes by. It's all about time before Bitcoin will be more eco-friendly than, say the banking system is now.

[cotton ball]

indeed basically bitcoin mining is more environmentally friendly, which says bitcoin is not environmentally friendly, it's just people who hate bitcoin, and the government can't control bitcoin, like China which always prohibits bitcoin mining, citing a waste of energy..

[ranochigo]

"Miners around the world are looking for stranded power that is renewable. That will always be your lowest cost. Net-net this will be a big win for bitcoin’s carbon footprint."

Yeah. Like some newly built solar infrastructure or a newly built nuclear plant would be cheaper than fossil fuel. That MIGHT apply for some areas, not all. Miners go to where it would be convenient and cheap.

"A lot of high-end devices are likely to shut down forever," said Alex Brammer of Luxor Mining.

Someone doesn't understand basic economics. The number of miners can be approximated to track the revenue of mining, and so is the electrical consumption. If the price or difficulty falls, less miners would be mining and vice versa.

Tech is tech - if vapes and electronic cigarettes are unsafe for human beings yet they're all around us, why is Bitcoin mining an issue?

Black market. Banning something that is ingrained into certain people inevitably leads to black market forming and governments can't tax them anymore and thus resulting in even greater negative externality. That is not an example that can be used to approximate the environmental damage done through Bitcoin mining.

[Kakmakr]

I think the Elon Musk tweet was a good kick in the butt for these miners to seek alternative "green" energy for mining purposes. We also have a lot of Chinese miners that has shutdown their miners that were linked to fossil fuel energy sources.

I hope this will have a trigger affect on the global mining farms and that they will be relocating to areas that has "green" and sustainable energy sources. (Hydo / Wind / Solar powered energy sources) 

[ropyu1978]

if you say there is new data that says bitcoin mining is environmentally friendly, I totally agree, because since the first appearance of bitcoin it has been clear that bitcoin is environmentally friendly, only people who hate bitcoin say bitcoin mining is not environmentally friendly, and causes global warming, because we already know bitcoin is very developed, and the government can't control bitcoin,

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

It is news to calm the market and help Bitcoin to bounce.
Bitcoin mining isn’t nearly as bad for the environment as it used to be, new data shows

The argument that Bitcoin is bad for environment is fud. It is well know long time but newbies believe in fud.
Debunking the "Bitcoin is an environmental disaster" argument.
End the fud on Energy

[aysg76]

Mining should be as spread out as possible to avoid major downturns in network processing should a serious social, political or natural disaster arise.

Another advantage I see from the fact that China's bans are going to force hardware companies to make better, more energy-efficient mining machines.

The mining activities are on the verge of diversification with china ban and now hashrate has been dropped out of china as early it was concentrated to more than 60% in china coal feilds but now with miners moving to other crypto friendly States like Texas and Kazakhstan hash rate is also allocating in these regions and now Kazakhstan has third Highest btc hash rate but they have implemented new tax that would charge extra for electricity used in mining and it is at 1 tenze per kwh used and it would be effective next year.But with all the mining activities becoming energy friendly we might see adoption curve slightly moving upwards and price support takes it to high levels.

[franky1]

New data from the University of Cambridge shows


Greener Bitcoin Mining
Beijing's repressive approach has forced miners to relocate, and many have found more friendly jurisdictions, such as Texas, with lower-cost renewable energy sources.

no and no
firstly cambridge came up with a nonsense news piece months ago that was fuill of racial bias mantra about "china bad"
asic farms have been in renewable(hydro) area's since 2014
china has only been trying to cut out the hobby miners running too much power through their residential circuits that it causes neighbourhood brownouts

..
you can look at pools and they are still running asics in places like beijing and getting the same block percentage as they did before. meaning beijing hashpower has not gone
take btc.com own pool
https://pool.btc.com/en-US/pool-stats
scroll down and see the blocks... oh look beijing is still there

and at time of posting.. asia still had most blocks solved

[Shenzou]

I think that a lot of the bitcoin miners that were in china had their plans already made to move elsewhere longbefore the Chinese government started making some harsh actions, because they have talked about banning bitcoin many times, and china is really know for burning coal to generate electrical energy which is the number one polluting source, and linking the high hash rate and the electric use of bitcoin mining we can say that it really was bad for the environment in a way, but now with them banning mining and a lot of them moving to other places where energy producing is more environmental friendly we can say that bitcoin mining will be clean.

[Fundamentals Of]

But despite all this data, certain people are still insisting that Bitcoin mining is still more dirty than green. I don't know why. Despite the fact that surveys have been done, researches made, experts consulted, etc, others are still adamant that Bitcoin mining has still not turned environment-friendly. Many of them must be Elon Musks who have got no research, survey, or data to back up their claims. Others have made their own self-serving computations out of thin air.

[FinneysTrueVision]

I think the Elon Musk tweet was a good kick in the butt for these miners to seek alternative "green" energy for mining purposes. We also have a lot of Chinese miners that has shutdown their miners that were linked to fossil fuel energy sources.

I hope this will have a trigger affect on the global mining farms and that they will be relocating to areas that has "green" and sustainable energy sources. (Hydo / Wind / Solar powered energy sources) 

That is giving Musk too much credit. Things were already headed in that direction. The negative publicity had been building up for long before he tweeted about it.

Overall, this has been a really good thing because the Bitcoin hashrate is better distributed and the network is more decentralized now that miners are relocating to different nations.

[stompix]

Bitcoiners reactions:

- China uses a lot of coal power!
- No, mining in China is done with hydroelectric power!

- The energy mix used by bitcoin mining is now greener!
- Of course, Chinese miners used a lot of coal-generated energy!

- Bitcoin uses more energy than Sweden!
- That is because all that energy is spent to secure the chain!

- Bitcoin's hashrate and energy consumption have dropped by half!
- That is good for the environment!
- But what about the security?
- Crickets!

https://pool.btc.com/en-US/pool-stats
scroll down and see the blocks... oh look beijing is still there

You still haven't learned the difference between a miner and a pool?
Do you really think people are mining in Beijing and Shenzhen?