A group of more than 20 firms comprising crypto, finance, technology, energy, and nongovernmental organizations has banded together to focus on the environmental impact of cryptocurrency. In an announcement on Thursday, the Crypto Climate Accord — reportedly inspired by the 195-signatory Paris Climate Agreement — said it aims to address the "large and growing energy consumption of cryptocurrency and blockchain, and the climate impact of their energy use." Launched by nonprofits Energy Web Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Alliance for Innovative Regulation, the group’s partners include high-profile firms in the crypto space like blockchain-based payments company Ripple, Canadian …

United Kingdom-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Argo Blockchain just recorded the best quarter in its history, generating record revenues for three months straight. Yet despite the burgeoning cryptocurrency mining venture emerging in the west, the vast majority of Bitcoin production still takes place in China, where cheap, coal-powered electricity fuels an untold number of mining rigs. A recent report by Nature.com revealed that as much as 75% of Bitcoin mining takes place in China — news which must fall hard on the ears of Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den investor Kevin O’Leary, who recently labeled all Bitcoin mined with the …

Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den personality Kevin O’Leary is taking a stand against what he terms “blood coin,” that being Bitcoin (BTC) mined in China. The investor declared that he would only deal with “clean coin” — coins mined using renewable energy — from now on and suggested other institutions were starting to do the same. O’Leary took aim at the free-wheeling nature of Bitcoin production by pointing out that most other products in the world are manufactured according to institutional and regulatory compliance standards. O’Leary said, during an interview with CNBC: “We have compliance on large institutions, we have …

Concerns about energy production, resource consumption and its impact on the environment are one of the dominant topics of debate on the global stage. The intensive energy costs of mining Bitcoin and other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies are also frequently pointed to as a serious downside to the emerging asset class. While environmental concerns and the cost to reward debate rages on, there is one group of cryptocurrency projects that has the goal of bringing blockchain technology to the global energy grids as a way to encourage renewable energy generation through a flexible marketplace that connects energy buyers and sellers. Three energy-focused …

Coin Metrics co-founder Nic Carter has produced a well-researched rebuttal to some of the key claims suggesting power-hungry Bitcoin mining is causing an environmental disaster. In an in-depth article called Noahbjectivity on Bitcoin mining penned on March 30, the Castle Island Ventures Partner responds to claims by Bloomberg columnist Noah Smith in a March 24 article titled Bitcoin miners are on a path to self-destruction. The first claim Carter took aim at was that Bitcoin is unique among assets in that a rising price entails a greater energy draw. Carter stated that gold has the exact same trait in that …

The recent boom in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, has been accompanied with controversy and concern over the technology’s environmental impact due to the computational power required. Out of all transaction types on a blockchain, NFTs are some of the most intensive of them all as they often involve numerous complicated transactions and executions of smart contracts in the minting, bidding, selling, and transferring process. This is sometimes reflected in transaction costs reaching hundreds of times more than that of a simple transaction. Almost 5k is the price to accept a bid on @rariblecom now!! Is it because of ETH high …

One of the biggest debates taking place on a global scale relates to energy production and the integration of renewable energy sources into an electrical grid dominated by carbon-based fuels and nuclear power. Energy Web Token (EWT) is one project that is growing in popularity as it aims to integrate blockchain technology into the energy sector. The project also plans to help with application development and it is creating a decentralized energy exchange. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of EWT increased 65% from a low of $11.38 on Feb. 28 to a new all-time high …

Lawmakers in Kentucky are looking to impose tax breaks for local cryptocurrency miners. Kentucky lawmakers on Tuesday approved several state tax breaks including House Bill 230, which would remove the sales tax from electricity purchased by local crypto mining operators. According to a report by the Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky legislators voted 19 to two for the new measure. The bill’s fiscal note is reportedly estimated to cost the local budget at least $1 million annually. The exact cost cannot be calculated so far because “it is unknown how many of the businesses might choose to locate here to avail themselves …

Authorities of the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia have proposed closing down all local cryptocurrency mining facilities to reduce energy consumption in the region. The Inner Mongolia National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC, released an official proposal to shut down local crypto mining operations in line with its energy-saving rules. Published Thursday of last week, the draft proposal suggests to “comprehensively clean up and shut down virtual currency mining projects” by the end of April. The authority also proposed a strict ban on new cryptocurrency mining projects in the region. The NDRC will collect public feedback on the …

Though many Texans are still suffering in the aftermath of a winter storm that left millions without power and running water for days, it’s unlikely that the crypto mining farms in the state played much of a role during the crisis. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Kristy-Leigh Minehan, a mining consultant and chief technology officer of NEM Software, said Texas doesn’t currently have enough mining hardware in operation to cause significant problems in the power grid when compared with that of major regions like Sichuan. According to Minehan, German Bitcoin (BTC) mining operator Northern Data is likely the only one that could …

The exponential rise in Bitcoin’s price and hash rate is driving critics to once again question the largest blockchain’s energy efficiency — with calls for “green hackers” to band together to mount an attack on the network. A self styled “developer and ecologist” who goes by the name of Franck Leroy created Twitter and Medium accounts this month to advocate the destruction of the Bitcoin network through “ethical hacking.” In a post titled “Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin” Leroy states that Bitcoin is an “irrational and destructive financial bubble” that is hugely damaging to the climate due …

The recent surge of Bitcoin (BTC) price has driven notable growth in the amount of electricity consumed by Bitcoin miners, spurring another wave of argument in the community over the ecology of the seminal cryptocurrency. According to the latest data from Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, Bitcoin energy consumption has been at its highest historical levels since late 2020, with the estimated annual consumption level staying above 75 TWh for a record period of time. Bitcoin is now estimated to consume around 77.8 TWh per year, which is as much power as consumed by Chile. Bitcoin’s carbon footprint — the …