Chia Network recently entered the cryptocurrency scene and has quickly piqued the interest of many miners and investors. There are several reasons for this: First, the Chia blockchain operates using a novel proof-of-space-and-time (PoST) protocol, which means that proof of the space used and time spent on the task is required to farm the cryptocurrency. Second, according to the creators of the currency, Chia (XCH) is an environmentally friendly coin and is not mined, rather it’s farmed, with the protocol needing low energy to generate new coins. Gene Hoffman, president and chief operating officer of Chia Network, told Cointelegraph that …

Over the years, Bitcoin has been able to overcome naysayers by frequently reinventing its narrative. Because Bitcoin (BTC) is multifaceted, it is able to quickly change to confront new criticism. We have seen this over the years. For example, Bitcoin used to be frequently assailed by the media for its volatility — many articles pushed the notion that Bitcoin was too volatile to ever succeed as a currency. We do not hear too much about Bitcoin’s volatility today, in part because observers have been accustomed to its frequent price swings, but mostly because “Bitcoiners” have coalesced around the notion of …

BTC.com — a major crypto mining pool that is operated by BIT Mining and owned by the NYSE-listed Chinese lottery service provider 500.com — has announced the successful relocation of its first batch of mining machines to Kazakhstan. BTC.com was founded by Jihan Wu and was operated by Bitmain and Bitdeer until its acquisition by 500.com this February. As of the time of writing, the pool is the world’s fifth-largest, validating 10.4% of blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain. The relocation comes after the company was notified by the state grid in western Sichuan province that the power supply serving one …

Institutional investors have been showing a stronger appetite for a carbon-neutral Bitcoin (BTC) investment solution by One River Digital Asset Management. One River Digital, a crypto-focused hedge fund offering exposure to Bitcoin and Ether (ETH), announced Wednesday that an overwhelming majority of assets in its institutional Bitcoin fund have chosen to switch to One River’s new carbon-neutrality share class. In April, the company introduced a new system that calculates the carbon cost of Bitcoin mining and buys tokenized carbon credits in order to offset the environmental impact. Based on the estimated carbon emitted per one BTC and the market price …

Nayib Bukele’s plans for crypto in El Salvador are still in motion, with the president now calling for a geothermal power company to make certain facilities available to Bitcoin miners. In a Wednesday tweet from Bukele, the president said he would be instructing Mynor Gil, the president of the state-owned electrical company LaGeo, to facilitate Bitcoin (BTC) mining “with very cheap, 100% clean, 100% renewable, 0 emissions energy” from the country’s volcanoes. The firm operates the only two geothermal power plants in El Salvador based in the regions of Ahuachapán and Berlín, with announced plans to construct new facilities in …

While writing the world's most famous white paper, Satoshi Nakamoto defined the Bitcoin (BTC) mining process. It was established that the minting of new coins would take place through proof-of-work. To carry out this verification and to be able to mine the cryptocurrency, computers would need to solve complex mathematical calculations. In the beginning, there were not many miners. However, that changed before the first Bitcoin bull run. Mining competition skyrocketed, causing a sharp increase in the cost of machines capable of competing. Even more importantly, energy demand exploded with the new machines — which needed energy mainly for processing …

Elon Musk is definitely interested in digital currency, but it seems that he doesn’t want to understand it. At least, I worry that he doesn't have a deep enough understanding of Bitcoin (BTC) and decentralized systems in general. A decentralized system has to be secure, and proof-of-work (PoW) is the solution for Bitcoin to secure its digital asset. The more successful Bitcoin is, the more energy is required for PoW to secure the network. In other words, the reason that Bitcoin uses up so much more electricity than Dogecoin (DOGE), for example, is because BTC is much more secure than …

While the broader crypto market suffers through a painful slump, a new report on Monday indicates that Bitcoin (BTC) miners in Argentina are thriving as they take advantage of convoluted energy policies. A report from Bloomberg that was republished in the Buenos Aires Times says that residential mining is picking up due to a mix of factors, including currency controls, energy subsidies and rampant inflation. The favorable mix of conditions has even brought international attention, as Canadian mining company Bitfarms Ltd. looks to set up what will reportedly be the largest mining operation in South America — part of a …

Is it possible to mine Bitcoin (BTC) using only 100% renewable energy sources and deliver the same economic returns as those using carbon-based sources? The answer is yes, according to Square’s recent analysis on the cost of renewables and their impact on Bitcoin mining. Unfortunately for our industry, the number of headlines and headline-making tweets about Bitcoin’s energy use and potential environmental impact has followed its rise in value in recent months. The increased media scrutiny has led to increased calls for regulatory action and even a proposed bill in the New York State Senate that would place a three-year …

At a conference yesterday, Ethereum co-founder and unofficial figurehead Vitalik Buterin argued that Ethereum’s upcoming transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism is a “solution” to the blockchain’s rampant energy consumption that has been incensing critics as of late. In an interview at the StartmeupHK virtual conference hosted from Hong Kong, Buterin said that while proof of stake is “still in its infancy and less battle-tested” than Ethereum’s current proof-of-work model, it can ultimately reduce the chain’s energy consumption by upwards of 10,000x. The comments come amid a period of rampant criticism of blockchain technology for its ecological impact — including …

With the hindsight of today's perspective on Bitcoin's (BTC) exorbitant energy consumption, it might come as something of a surprise to learn that the international non-governmental environmental organization Greenpeace was one of its earlier adopters. Back in 2014, the organization set up a facility for accepting Bitcoin donations, yet this enthusiasm has now cooled, as widespread attention has homed in on the climate risks posed by energy-guzzling Proof-of-Work coins like Bitcoin. Last week, news broke that Greenpeace had decided to scrap the facility, holding it to "no longer be tenable" in an era of rapid global warming. Much of this …

Crypto derivatives trading platform BitMEX, which has had its fair share of bad press over the past year, is trying to contribute to cleaning up the wider industry's image by taking action to address growing climate concerns over the carbon footprint of Proof-of-Work currencies like Bitcoin (BTC). In an announcement published on May 21, the exchange said that while there are ostensibly “wildly divergent views and accuracy of information” regarding the climate risks posed by some cryptocurrencies, BitMEX feels it has a “responsibility to take positive action.” This action will take the form of an attempt to offset its carbon …