A new announcement from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission, or DRC, has informed the public that they now have a direct way to report any outlying cryptocurrency operations in the region. As previously reported, Inner Mongolia was once home to a vast network of crypto mining operators, who collectively accounted for 7.71% of the global Bitcoin network hash rate between September 2019 and April 2020. As part of Beijing's increasingly proactive, ambitious agenda to reduce carbon emissions, Chinese authorities have increasingly scrutinized the coal-rich region of Inner Mongolia, where plentiful, cheap electricity remains reliant on fossil …

The Iranian government continues to closely monitor the cryptocurrency mining industry by initiating new measures against home crypto miners, according to a new report. Mostafa Rajabi, a spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Energy, said that crypto mining with household electricity is not legal and, thus, home miners will have to pay heavy fines if discovered, local news agency The Tehran Times reported Sunday. Crypto miners using household energy will be also required to provide compensation for potential damages caused to the electricity network, the official stated. Rajabi said that the government has undertaken these measures in order to get a …

Amid the ongoing concerns over Bitcoin’s (BTC) energy consumption, a new study states that the traditional banking system consumes much more energy than the Bitcoin network. Michael Novogratz’s cryptocurrency firm, Galaxy Digital, released a report Friday titled “On Bitcoin’s Energy Consumption: A Quantitative Approach to a Subjective Question,” providing open-source access to its methodology and calculations. Compiled by Galaxy’s mining arm, the study estimates Bitcoin’s annual electricity consumption to stand at 113.89 terawatts per hour, including energy for miner demand, miner power consumption, pool power consumption and node power consumption. This amount is at least two times lower than the …

The energy consumed by mining — the process that keeps Bitcoin’s blockchain running — has been an increasingly popular topic of discussion in recent weeks. On Friday, CNBC posted an interview with SUKU CEO Yonathan Lapchik, during which he explained the Bitcoin mining scene as it relates to renewable energy. The interviewer noted Lapchik previously claimed that 75% of Bitcoin mining comes from renewable energy. “We think that 75% is an actual figure,” Lapchik told CNBC, “The miners are truly incentivized to use renewable energy." Turning his thoughts to electric car-maker Tesla, which recently announced it would no longer accept …

After months of touting the benefits of Bitcoin (BTC) and blockchain technology, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shocked Crypto Twitter on Wednesday by announcing that the electric car company would suspend its accepting BTC as a form of payment, citing concerns related to the energy required to mine the top cryptocurrency. As Tesla issued its statement, Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and a large segment of altcoins sold off sharply, but there were a few projects that found clever ways to capitalize off the mayhem by tweeting about the “green” nature of their networks, which require only a tiny fraction of the energy …

Bill Maher did not hold back criticizing cryptocurrencies from Bitcoin (BTC) to Dogecoin (DOGE), implying the whole space was fake and yet still required an incredible amount of real energy. Speaking in the New Rules segment on his show Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday, the comedian said the goal of mining crypto was to “make something that is purposefully arbitrary.” Comparing the crypto space to a virtual game and speaking about mining in a seemingly derisive tone, Maher implied investing in tokens was a childish endeavor which some prominent financial figures like Warren Buffett were avoiding. “There is …

Beijing authorities are reportedly conducting inspections of crypto mining data centers to better understand their impact on energy consumption, Reuters reported on Thursday. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology on Tuesday sent an emergency notice to the city’s data center operators asking them to report whether they are involved in mining Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. The notice required data centers to report the amount of power consumed by crypto mining, the report notes. A bureau official said that notice recipients include China’s top-three telecom operators. He noted that he was unaware of the reason behind the …

Amid growing concerns over the energy sector in Kyrgyzstan, a former government official has argued that cryptocurrency mining is a major factor driving the energy crisis. Daniyar Akmatov, former director of the state investment protection organization, the Investment Promotion and Protection Agency, addressed the challenges in Kyrgyzstan’s energy sector at a roundtable in Bishkek, local news agency Tazabek reported on Wednesday. The former official said that crypto mining is causing issues for the country’s energy sector, alongside other factors like the devaluation of the Kyrgyz som and poor promotion of energy investment. “Consumption of electricity due to cryptocurrency mining has …

The virtual 7th Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum was jointly hosted by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan and the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network with the theme “Enabling Resilience for All: The Critical Decade to Scale-up Action.” The forum took place in March and was held to formulate national adaptation planning for science and technology, and energy and fiscal policies that consider the interlinkages between climate change, health and biodiversity. These nature- and ecosystem-based policies will serve as the basis for the Asia-Pacific region’s contributions to the Leaders Summit on Climate in the United States; the United Nations Biodiversity …

The Bitcoin energy consumption debate is heating up faster than the planet, with corporations facing pushback from the public and shareholders over Bitcoin (BTC) investments. According to a Citigroup Inc. report, Bitcoin is consuming 66 times more electricity than it did in 2015. It added that the carbon emissions associated with mining will likely face increasing scrutiny, according to Bloomberg. This assertion is backed up by new research from Mastercard — which just released its own Carbon Calculator — that shows 54% of people believe that preserving the environment is more important now than it was pre-COVID-19. Citigroup analysts also …

Mike Colyer, CEO of Foundry Digital — a crypto mining subsidiary of Digital Currency Group — believes mining Bitcoin could eventually help the world transition to green energy. Speaking at the Crypto Mining Forum online event on Tuesday, Colyer said he believes that as major energy companies see the economic benefits of mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), it may lead to a restructuring of both capital and operations. Calling Bitcoin mining "a great stabilizer" for the power grid, the Foundry Digital CEO said the technology could become a "bridge between the current energy production and a world where 100% of …

Decarbbitcoin Labs, an environmentally-focused think tank founded by Community Electricity, is taking a hands-on approach to fighting climate change in California — and is using Bitcoin (BTC) mining as its first prototype. Building off California’s Environmental Justice Program, whose mission is to protect communities that endure a disproportionate share of environmental pollution, Decarbbitcoin Labs is developing a first-of-its-kind prototype in Los Angeles aimed at not only decarbonizing the community but also proving how green Bitcoin will be mined. Austin Davis, co-founder of Community Electricity, told Cointelegraph that Environmental Justice Communities across the state receive over $1 billion in funding for …