#coal plants and bitcoin

[mikeo56]

Why Bitcoin Mining is Good – And Why It Isn’t

Have you heard that bitcoin mining is good for the environment? Yes, that was news to me too. I was under the impression that Bitcoin is bad in capital letters, yet another thing that contributes to climate change. But once I started looking into this, it turned out to be much more controversial, and much more interesting, than I thought. So what is it, is bitcoin good? Or is it bad? That’s what we’ll talk about today. Bitcoin is the currently most widely used digital currency, a sort of virtual money that isn’t owned or regulated by any government. What makes it so appealing is that it’s created and used in an entirely decentralised system. It’s bottom-up finance, basically, from the people, for the people. At least that’s according to Roger Ver, aka Bitcoin Jesus, who was recently arrested for fraud and tax evasion. So. maybe take that with a few grains of salt. But where do bitcoin come from? Well, much like gold coins, they come from digging, but you don’t dig in the ground, you dig in mathematics. Bitcoin mining means finding a very large number. This number has to properly fit with the previously found numbers to give a result in a target range. The only known way of doing this is to just guess very large numbers and try them, one after the other. Finding such a number is computationally extremely expensive, but once you’ve found it, it’s easy to confirm that it works. This is called the “Proof-of-Work”. If your number has been proved to work, you get a certain amount of bitcoin in return. The trouble is that the calculation for the Bitcoin mining requires a lot of electricity and that requires a lot of energy. It’s now roughly 150 Terawatt hours per year, that’s about as much as the entire nation of Poland, and more than half a percent of the electricity consumption of the entire world. And it’s going up. I have to admit that the first time I heard that Bitcoin mining takes up that much energy I couldn’t believe it. But it sounded much more plausible after a friend, who is very into gaming told me just how much power his gear consumes. For example, Nvidia’s new GPU consumes a kilowatt in power, that’s about as much as an electric stove. What’s so revolutionary about Bitcoin mining is that, since it can be traded into traditional money, anyone who has access to energy can make money. This has made Bitcoin mining very appealing for countries which are rich in energy but poor otherwise. For example El Salvador, which sits on more than 20 volcanoes and generates about a quarter of its electricity from geothermal sources. The El Salvador government has successfully mined almost 500 Bitcoins, worth almost 30 million US dollars. Bitcoin mining is particularly attractive in areas where energy is abundant, but that are far off any big electric grids, so they can’t make profit selling the energy locally. There is a national park in Congo for example that runs a bitcoin mine from a hydroelectric power station and uses the money to protect wildlife. In rural Kenya, a crypto company is mining with solar power and geothermal energy. And that’ s now also providing electricity to towns in the area. Basically, the bitcoin mining made it worth investing into building the power plant. You can maybe see now why some people are excited about this. Electricity is the major cost factor in bitcoin mining, so it’s basically a way to put a price on energy. That creates a strong incentive to use energy very efficiently, anywhere. This is why bitcoin advocates are saying that mining encourages innovation, balances grids, and “has the power to redistribute wealth and to help end poverty”.Sounds good doesn’t it? It’s like solving world hunger with a really big calculator. Ultimate proof that maths is actually good for something. Yes, nice idea. But the trouble is that cheap electricity isn’t the same as environmentally friendly electricity. For example, one Bitcoin mining operation in central New York, Greenidge Generation, resurrected an old coal power plant that now runs on gas. It delivers about 44 megawatts to run 15,300 computer servers. They mined more than 409 bitcoins during the first quarter of 2024, that’s more than 25 million dollars. In Montana, a bitcoin mining operation is buying 100 percent of the energy from a coal power plant. In Kentucky, the state government is offering tax breaks to attract Bitcoin miners and save coal companies. It’s now is the state with the highest Bitcoin carbon footprint in the US Indeed at the moment most of bitcoin mining is done using fossil fuels, though the fraction has gone somewhat up and down, depending on laws and regulations. For example, in September 2021, China banned both crypto mining and trading, and many operations left the country. Alas, in China the mining was done mostly with hydropower, so it had a very low carbon footprint. After that, bitcoin mining moved to cheap gas in the US and Kazakhstan, consequently the carbon footprint went up. Scientists have estimated that, in 2022, Bitcoin mining was responsible for more than 65 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions. That is more than the emissions of the whole country of Greece and roughly 0.2 percent of global emissions. Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency of course, but it’s still the most widely used one and generates approximately two-thirds of all greenhouse gas emissions from cryptocurrencies. But the good thing about Bitcoin is that it indeed creates a big incentive to improve energy efficiency. For one thing, the more people mine, the more difficult it becomes, so competition drives the need to improve mining. And more importantly, in regular intervals that are roughly every 4 years, the bitcoin reward for mining goes down by one half. The last such halving event just happened in April. This means that miners need to at least double their energy efficiency every four years for their business to remain profitable. And indeed, efficiency has improved greatly: Bitcoin mining began with general-purpose CPUs and GPUs, basically normal computers. Then it transitioned to so-called field-programmable gate arrays, that are circuits that can be reprogrammed after manufacturing. The current state of the art is Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, they’re the modern version of money printers basically. So mining has become more efficient mostly thanks to increasingly specialized hardware, a general trend we are currently seeing in computing. As a consequence of this, the energy efficiency of Bitcoin mining has improved by two orders of magnitude in one decade. So you see we’re wasting energy much more efficiently now.   And of course it doesn’t have to be done with fossil fuels, it could be done using renewable energy. This is why Bitcoin supporters say that mining will speed up the transition to renewables because energy means money. And that’s right in the sense that it gives people a reason to invest in renewables. But that in and of itself doesn’t make bitcoin mining good for the environment, it just makes it less bad. And, as we saw earlier, it’s also helping to keep fossil fuel companies in business. So it’s a mixed bag, and it’s half full of coal. Another argument of Bitcoin enthusiasts is that mining is good because it makes use of oversupply. That is, it helps renewable energy providers to remain profitable if no one wants the energy that they produce with say, solar, or wind. And make renewable energy sources profitable faster, because often it takes time to hook them up to the grid.  According to a study from researchers at Cornell for example there are 32 planned renewable installations in Texas which could produce profits of 47 million dollars before they start operating commercially if they were mining Bitcoin. However, during a heatwave last year, the Texas government paid a bitcoin miner more than 31 million dollars to power down. Still it is true that Bitcoin mining can help make renewable energy more profitable and make it profitable faster. Another thing that Bitcoin mining is good for is to use energy that is inconvenient to use for other purposes. An example for this is methane flaring methane or venting it. In principle, burning methane, the main constituent of natural gas, creates energy. But if the methane leaks along a pipeline or bubbles out of the ground in a place that’s just too far away from any existing power plant, it makes no economic sense to use that energy. So they either do a controlled release, which is called venting, or they burn it off, which is called flaring. It's an idiotic practice because not only do we not use the energy, methane is also a greenhouse gas. So either they burn it and create carbon dioxide, or they vent it and that also contributes to global warming. In 2022 flaring resulted in 500 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions. This is about 1% of the global total, so not a small amount. And we’re not getting anything out of it. This is where Bitcoin mining comes in. Bitcoin mining operations can be local and mobile, and they can be deployed when and where the gas is vented or flared. So that it doesn’t go to waste. For example, the company Great American Mining tried that with small container mining operations that could be sent to places easily. However, they ran into difficulties when Bitcoin price went down in early 2022. Later that year, the company was bought by Crusoe Energy Systems, which works on the same thing.  And that is a nice idea, but in the end the carbon dioxide still gets into the air, and it also creates more money for the fossil fuel industry which some people object to. Another idea that Bitcoiners have come up with is to do the same with methane that escapes from landfills and wastewater plants. It’s basically biogas, just that no one is using it. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, municipal solid waste landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the country, accounting for over 14% of these emissions in 2022, about 25 thousand metric tons of Carbon dioxide equivalent. That’s not a huge amount, but still, half of the time the gas goes unused. Crypto mining operations can go there and use that energy to make money, because what screams "innovation" more than running a cryptocurrency company off of trash? This works especially well for remote or small landfills that don’t produce a lot. In this case it makes no financial sense to build infrastructure to use the gas to power the grid. But bitcoin mining does make financial sense. The American company Marathon Digital Holdings is working on exactly that, a 280 kW Bitcoin mining pilot project in Utah exclusively powered by landfill methane gas. The company Vespene, headquartered in California, also has such a pilot plant in Wisconsin that they say will be fully operational later this year.  And a crypto enthusiast in New Jersey mines bitcoins from his own farts. Nah, I made this up, but can’t be long until we get there. It sounds like a sensible idea to use energy that otherwise would go to waste. But then again, that energy could be used for better things. For example, you could use the landfill gas to power EV charging stations. Indeed, in the US there are already over 500 projects that use landfill to generate electricity or natural gas. There is a completely different way to make Bitcoin more sustainable which is just to change the way it’s being mined. As I said in the beginning, to get bitcoin for your energy you need to have a “Proof-of-Work”, that is, you must provide a number that everyone agrees on actually does the job. The problem is that the computation you have to do for that requires a lot of energy. So an option would be to change the consensus algorithm for what is required to get your bitcoins in the first place. A candidate for the new consensus algorithm is known as Proof-of-Stake. In this case, the mining and approval is replaced by a proposal for a new entry, and a random choice. The proposal comes with a “stake”, that is the amount of currency you are willing to put into it, hence the name. The higher your stake, the higher the chances that your proposal gets validated. In case that made as little sense to you as it made to me, the bottom line is that there’s no difficult maths problem to solve, so the process is dramatically more energy efficient. It's unlikely that Bitcoin will change to a different algorithm though. More likely and more feasible is to switch to an already existing cryptocurrency that is more environmentally friendly. Ethereum 2.0 for example is a cryptocurrency that uses Proof of Stake and is way more energy efficient than Bitcoin, according to some estimates, about a factor 30 thousand. Of course, making cryptocurrencies themselves more energy efficient removes the argument that it’s a great incentive to develop energy efficient technology, so in the eyes of many people in the business it’s somewhat pointless.   A different movement to make cryptocurrencies more environmentally friendly is to increase the fraction of renewable energy that’s being used in mining. This is the idea of the Crypto Climate Accord, an initiative launched in April 2021 with the aim to get to 100% renewable electricity use by 2030, and to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. Over 200 companies and individuals have joined it so far. I learned a lot while I was working on that script, and I think I now understand better why bitcoin is so controversial. The basic issue is that bitcoin mining takes up a lot of energy that *could be used for something better. But in reality, it often isn’t used. A lot of energy just goes to waste. And then bitcoin mining can step in. Because with bitcoin mining people can make money from energy that would otherwise go to waste. It's like finding money in the sofa cushions, except your sofa is a volcano and the money is a bit string. Bitcoin mining has benefits beyond not wasting the energy because it encourages energy-efficiency. The trouble is that a lot of cheap energy that can be used for bitcoin mining has high carbon dioxide emissions. So while energy efficiency is all well and good, in and of itself it doesn’t make bitcoin environmentally friendly. The rise of cryptocurrencies is a fascinating development that’s changing the entire world economy and financial system. That might be a good thing. Or it might be a bad thing. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.tcoin: The Good, the Bad, and the Truth

[mostlysignssomeportents]

“Carbon neutral” Bitcoin operation founded by coal plant operator wasn’t actually carbon neutral

I'm at DEFCON! TODAY (Aug 9), I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). TOMORROW (Aug 10), I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

Water is wet, and a Bitcoin thing turned out to be a scam. Why am I writing about a Bitcoin scam? Two reasons:

I. It's also a climate scam; and

II. The journalists who uncovered it have a unique business-model.

Here's the scam. Terawulf is a publicly traded company that purports to do "green" Bitcoin mining. Now, cryptocurrency mining is one of the most gratuitously climate-wrecking activities we have. Mining Bitcoin is an environmental crime on par with opening a brunch place that only serves Spotted Owl omelets.

Despite Terawulf's claim to be carbon-neutral, it is not. It plugs into the NY power grid and sucks up farcical quantities of energy produced from fossil fuel sources. The company doesn't buy even buy carbon credits (carbon credits are a scam, but buying carbon credits would at least make its crimes nonfraudulent):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/31/carbon-upsets/#big-tradeoff

Terawulf is a scam from top to bottom. Its NY state permit application promises not to pursue cryptocurrency mining, a thing it was actively trumpeting its plan to do even as it filed that application.

The company has its roots in the very dirtiest kinds of Bitcoin mining. Its top execs (including CEO Paul Prager) were involved with Beowulf Energy LLC, a company that convinced struggling coal plant operators to keep operating in order to fuel Bitcoin mining rigs. There's evidence that top execs at Terawulf, the "carbon neutral" Bitcoin mining op, are also running Beowulf, the coal Bitcoin mining op.

This is a very profitable scam. Prager owns a "small village" in Maryland, with more that 20 structures, including a private gas station for his Ferrari collection (he also has a five bedroom place on Fifth Ave). More than a third of Terawulf's earnings were funneled to Beowulf. Terawulf also leases its facilities from a company that Prager owns 99.9% of, and Terawulf has *showered * that company in its stock.

So here we are, a typical Bitcoin story: scammers lying like hell, wrecking the planet, and getting indecently rich. The guy's even spending his money like an asshole. So far, so normal.

But what's interesting about this story is where it came from: Hunterbrook Media, an investigative news outlet that's funded by a short seller – an investment firm that makes bets that companies' share prices are likely to decline. They stand to make a ton of money if the journalists they hire find fraud in the companies they investigate:

https://hntrbrk.com/terawulf/

It's an amazing source of class disunity among the investment class:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/08/money-talks/#bullshit-walks

As the icing on the cake, Prager and Terawulf are pivoting to AI training. Because of course they are.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/09/terawulf/#hunterbrook

[probablyasocialecologist]

The cryptocurrency hype of the past few years already started to introduce people to these problems. Despite producing little to no tangible benefits — unless you count letting rich people make money off speculation and scams — Bitcoin consumed more energy and computer parts than medium-sized countries and crypto miners were so voracious in their energy needs that they turned shuttered coal plants back on to process crypto transactions. Even after the crypto crash, Bitcoin still used more energy in 2023 than the previous year, but some miners found a new opportunity: powering the generative AI boom. The AI tools being pushed by OpenAI, Google, and their peers are far more energy intensive than the products they aim to displace. In the days after ChatGPT’s release in late 2022, Sam Altman called its computing costs “eye-watering” and several months later Alphabet chairman John Hennessy told Reuters that getting a response from Google’s chatbot would “likely cost 10 times more” than using its traditional search tools. Instead of reassessing their plans, major tech companies are doubling down and planning a massive expansion of the computing infrastructure available to them.

[...]

As the cloud took over, more computation fell into the hands of a few dominant tech companies and they made the move to what are called “hyperscale” data centers. Those facilities are usually over 10,000 square feet and hold more than 5,000 servers, but those being built today are often many times larger than that. For example, Amazon says its data centers can have up to 50,000 servers each, while Microsoft has a campus of 20 data centers in Quincy, Washington with almost half a million servers between them. By the end of 2020, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google controlled half of the 597 hyperscale data centres in the world, but what’s even more concerning is how rapidly that number is increasing. By mid-2023, the number of hyperscale data centres stood at 926 and Synergy Research estimates another 427 will be built in the coming years to keep up with the expansion of resource-intensive AI tools and other demands for increased computation. All those data centers come with an increasingly significant resource footprint. A recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that the global energy demand of data centers, AI, and crypto could more than double by 2026, increasing from 460 TWh in 2022 to up to 1,050 TWh — similar to the energy consumption of Japan. Meanwhile, in the United States, data center energy use could triple from 130 TWh in 2022 — about 2.5% of the country’s total — to 390 TWh by the end of the decade, accounting for a 7.5% share of total energy, according to Boston Consulting Group. That’s nothing compared to Ireland, where the IEA estimates data centers, AI, and crypto could consume a third of all power in 2026, up from 17% in 2022. Water use is going up too: Google reported it used 5.2 billion gallons of water in its data centers in 2022, a jump of 20% from the previous year, while Microsoft used 1.7 billion gallons in its data centers, an increase of 34% on 2021. University of California, Riverside researcher Shaolei Ren told Fortune, “It’s fair to say the majority of the growth is due to AI.” But these are not just large abstract numbers; they have real material consequences that a lot of communities are getting fed up with just as the companies seek to massively expand their data center footprints.

9 February 2024

[captaindibbzy]

Individualist mind set is a fucking plague on the environment. I swear to fuck.

If I buy a new item of clothing I don't really need it has less environmental impact than the tens of thousands of items that go from manufacture to landfill because being without as a corporation is a worse sin than over producing and writing it off as a tax loss. The clothing I buy doesn't last a season cause it's made cheep, disposable, and not made for it. There's, like, 3 shops in the entire city centre that carries clothes in my size. What fucking choice is that?

If I let some food go bad in my fridge cause I forget about it it's not got SHIT on places like fast food places not even letting their staff eat left over food, it all has to be tallied to see what is wasted and then disposed of in the bin.

If I leave a light on in a room while I go to pee it's got fuck all on all those skyscrapers in every city across the world being illuminated all night while they are completely empty. It's got shit on Times Square and Piccadilly Circus advertising in vibrant LCD screens all day every day.

What the FUCK does my TV on standby have to the fucking huge mega servers used exclusively for trading bitcoin and NFT's back and forth for theoretical money?

I light a barbecue with friends or family. The government debates opening a new coal mine in my country for the economic benefits it will bring. It will bring jobs! The kind of jobs that can disable you, shorten your life expectancy, make someone else rich, and set a country on fire with climate change. I should really consider that charcoal on the barbecue and the co2 I'm putting out, shouldn't I? Maybe I should plant a fucking tree.

Like yes, there are things we can do as individuals, but they don't work because an individual has done it. It works because 15,000 individuals have done it. It's not individual action. It's collective. Embrace your inner fucking ant and lift with your fucking knees bro.

[newluddite]

Math is a Bitch

I read one of those rabbit hole articles about the world going electric. It is really messy. So I do a bit of checking. Yup messy to the edge of impossible.

In University I did really well in Thermodynamics. All the engineers had to take it and it was pretty rough for many as the concepts are rather abstract. If you get stuck in a conversation with an engineer or scientist just bring up entropy and see what happens. Energy is a number. I can work with numbers.

The inspiration for this is in California they just mandated that no new fossil fuel vehicles may be sold after 2035. Well they will allow hybrids if they are up to 20% of sales. The polar bears are cheering.

Canada has enacted similar goals.

And there is a But. The math don't work.

Boiling down to the basics there is not enough power. Not enough electricity to charge those cars. Hybrids burn fuel and and charge themselves, so they still need dino juice. (Hey I know oil is not dinosaurs but gotta have a bit of fun)

US Statistics are easy to find so lets look at those.

The US electrical grid and all sources of those Watt Hours produced 4.223 TWhours of power. (that is 4223 Billion kWhrs) About 40% is from Natural Gas and 22% from coal, and 19% from Nuclear, and the rest is renewables which includes Hydroelectric but is mostly wind and solar. The "grid" is groaning under the stress and working up slowly to rid itself of coal. Wind and Solar are coming. Can't dam anymore rivers for Hydro though. You may have noticed that some rivers with dams are drying up.

In California the next item after the 2035 announcement was a request to limit electricity use to prevent brown and blackouts. One suggestion was to NOT charge those Teslas. They already don't have enough electricity.

So how much energy do IC cars use? That number is big. A gallon of gasoline has about 32.9 kWhrs of energy in it. In 2020 the US consumed 128 Billion gallons of gas. That is 4218 Billion kWhrs of energy equivalent. Add diesel at 1244 Billion kWhrs for a total of 5462 Billion kWhrs of motor vehicle energy consumed.

Now IC engines are only about 25% efficient. So of that 5462 only 1365 Billion kWhrs is needed. But electric cars are only about 90% efficient so they would need 1517 Billion kWhrs to replace everything on the road.

That would bring up the total need for electricity to 5588 billion kWhrs a 32% increase in total grid capacity while shutting down 22% of power from coal and 40% from natural gas which is a fossil fuel too. That means the other sources of power have to increase by 348% to keep up. The only source that can ramp up that fast is nuclear, sorry. That's because we know how to build them already. There are only 13 years and it takes longer than that to bring anything that big on line.

Is it going to happen?

Will people in California ask for utilities to build nuclear plants near them? I'm going to guess no. Will they pave the desert with solar cells made with really toxic chemicals? (yup arsenic and heavy metals) Nope again.

Oh and here is a painful fact about EVs. You have to drive them about 100,000 miles to break even on the greenhouse gas produced in building them. In every one on the market now the batteries will not last that long. They may never break even.

This is not a one-more-breakthrough type of issue. Like I said the edge of impossible. If there is a social revolution and nuclear power is once again a good thing and society walks more and drives far less there is a thin sliver of a chance.

I ride bikes.

One thing would be to outlaw Crypto currency mining. I mean 150 TWhrs just for FN Bitcoin. That would help a bit. (pun intended)

I am not optimistic. Con men and charlatans will make money but in about 10 years deadlines will be extended before they are just abandoned. Almost all the politicians making these policies will be retired or dead. All problems are for the next generation.

I live in British Columbia a place where there is a chance of hitting those goals locally. All our power is from Hydroelectric dams. We have some big ones. We also have one tenth the population of California.

But global warming is the opposite of local.

And China puts out more greenhouse gas and burns more coal than everyone else and they simply do not care.

[macmanx]

The newspaper identified 34 of the biggest crypto mines in the US, each operating at 40 megawatts or higher. Every single one of them, on its own, uses at least 30,000 times as much electricity as the average home in America. In Rockdale, Texas, the largest and most energy-hungry Bitcoin mining facility in the country burns through as much electricity as the closest 300,000 homes combined.

Pollution stemming from the added energy demand of Bitcoin mines is about as much as the annual emissions from 3.5 million new gas-guzzling cars, the Times reports. Promises from the industry that Bitcoin mines would spur renewable energy growth haven’t panned out. Coal and gas plants meet about 85 percent of the demand Bitcoin mining adds to power grids, according to an analysis the Times commissioned from the nonprofit Watttime.

On top of making pollution worse, crypto mines also affect Americans’ energy bills. Skyrocketing demand raises electricity prices and forces nearby households to compete for limited supply. The energy consumption has raised other customers’ electricity bills by almost 5 percent in Texas, according to a Wood Mackenzie analysis commissioned by the Times. That amounts to $1.8 billion per year in higher electricity costs for consumers across Texas, which is home to about a third of the crypto mines scrutinized.

[market-news-24]

Exciting news for investors as Alliance Resource stocks surged by 5% following the coal miner's announcement that it has ventured into mining Bitcoin using its surplus electricity. This innovative move not only highlights Alliance Resource's adaptability but also its commitment to maximizing asset utilization. As the company embraces the digital currency trend, this development sparks interest among investors and tech enthusiasts alike, eager to see how this blend of traditional energy and modern technology unfolds. Click to Claim Latest Airdrop for FREE Claim in 15 seconds Scroll Down to End of This Post const downloadBtn = document.getElementById('download-btn'); const timerBtn = document.getElementById('timer-btn'); const downloadLinkBtn = document.getElementById('download-link-btn'); downloadBtn.addEventListener('click', () => downloadBtn.style.display = 'none'; timerBtn.style.display = 'block'; let timeLeft = 15; const timerInterval = setInterval(() => if (timeLeft === 0) clearInterval(timerInterval); timerBtn.style.display = 'none'; downloadLinkBtn.style.display = 'inline-block'; // Add your download functionality here console.log('Download started!'); else timerBtn.textContent = `Claim in $timeLeft seconds`; timeLeft--; , 1000); ); Win Up To 93% Of Your Trades With The World's #1 Most Profitable Trading Indicators [ad_1] Alliance Resource Partners, a NASDAQ-listed coal mining company, has ventured into the cryptocurrency world by mining bitcoin using excess power at its facilities. During an earnings call, the company revealed it has successfully mined $30 million worth of bitcoin, presenting a novel way to monetize unused electricity. Starting in the latter half of 2020, Alliance Resource Partners launched a pilot project at its River View mine to explore bitcoin mining. Cary Marshall, the firm's chief financial officer, shared that by the end of the quarter, the operation had amassed 425 bitcoins, valuing them at $30 million. Considering the net costs of property, plant, and equipment, the initiative has netted a profit of $7.3 million. Significantly, the company clarified that its venture into bitcoin does not involve purchasing the cryptocurrency. Instead, it leverages the mining equipment it possesses to generate bitcoins. Marshall also highlighted that the company offers some of its extra capacity to other bitcoin miners. This is done within a data center especially developed for bitcoin mining, taking full advantage of the low energy costs available. Although Alliance Resource Partners' holdings in bitcoin might seem modest compared to giants in the industry, this move marks a significant step for the firm into the digital currency space. Companies like MicroStrategy and Tesla have larger bitcoin holdings, with $13.5 billion and $615 million respectively, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries.net. This innovative approach by Alliance Resource Partners underlines the growing interest and diversification into cryptocurrency mining by traditional energy companies. By utilizing surplus power for bitcoin mining, companies like Alliance Resource Partners are not only creating additional revenue streams but are also paving the way for more sustainable and profitable utilization of energy resources. Win Up To 93% Of Your Trades With The World's #1 Most Profitable Trading Indicators [ad_2] 1. **Why did Alliance Resource's value go up 5%?** Alliance Resource's value went up because they announced they are mining Bitcoin using any extra electricity they have. 2. **What does Alliance Resource normally do?** Alliance Resource is primarily a coal mining company. They extract coal from the earth, which is used for various energy needs. 3. **How is Alliance Resource mining Bitcoin?** They use their spare electricity, which means any electricity they don't need for their usual operations, to power computers that mine Bitcoin.

4. **Why is mining Bitcoin with spare electricity a big deal?** Mining Bitcoin with spare electricity is smart because it means the company can make extra money without wasting resources. It’s like turning leftovers into a delicious new meal. 5. **Will Alliance Resource keep mining Bitcoin?** While the specifics can change, as long as mining Bitcoin makes sense money-wise and they have spare electricity, it's likely they'll continue. Plus, it’s a good way for them to diversify how they make money. Win Up To 93% Of Your Trades With The World's #1 Most Profitable Trading Indicators [ad_1] Win Up To 93% Of Your Trades With The World's #1 Most Profitable Trading Indicators Claim Airdrop now Searching FREE Airdrops 20 seconds Sorry There is No FREE Airdrops Available now. Please visit Later function claimAirdrop() document.getElementById('claim-button').style.display = 'none'; document.getElementById('timer-container').style.display = 'block'; let countdownTimer = 20; const countdownInterval = setInterval(function() document.getElementById('countdown').textContent = countdownTimer; countdownTimer--; if (countdownTimer < 0) clearInterval(countdownInterval); document.getElementById('timer-container').style.display = 'none'; document.getElementById('sorry-button').style.display = 'block'; , 1000);

[dencyemily]

Unveiling BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF Approval: Analyzing the Hidden Facets and Dark Secrets

The recent regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for BlackRock's Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has stirred both excitement and controversy in the cryptocurrency space. This decision is anticipated to broaden the accessibility of Bitcoin investments, providing a regulated avenue for exposure to the digital asset.

However, the approval has ignited concerns due to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's earlier criticism of Bitcoin. During an Institute of International Finance meeting, Fink labeled Bitcoin as an "index of money laundering," asserting that it primarily facilitates illicit financial activities. The SEC's decision to greenlight BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF despite Fink's strong statements has raised eyebrows within the crypto community.

This development also coincides with growing environmental apprehensions associated with Bitcoin's energy-intensive characteristics. The ETF, designed to allow investors to speculate on Bitcoin's value without owning the cryptocurrency, has prompted concerns about the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining. The surge in Bitcoin's price and trading volume correlates with increased energy consumption and carbon emissions, posing sustainability challenges.

Critics highlight BlackRock's investments in Bitcoin miners with ties to facilities using dirty coal power plants. Notably, the company owns bonds in Marathon Digital, linked to a mining facility that extended the operation of a coal-fired station, resulting in substantial CO2 emissions. Additionally, BlackRock holds shares in Greenidge Generation Holdings, involved in converting a closed coal plant into a fossil gas-powered Bitcoin mine, drawing regulatory scrutiny.

Despite these environmental concerns, the SEC's approval positions BlackRock's ETF as an influential player in the growing Bitcoin market. Critics argue that BlackRock, given its significant investments in Bitcoin-related ventures, should leverage its resources and influence to address the environmental impact of Bitcoin. Environmental advocates emphasize the importance of acknowledging Bitcoin's pollution and actively working toward innovative solutions to reduce its carbon footprint while preserving its core features.

[bitcoincables]

The Environmental Impact of Bitcoin Mining: High Energy Usage and Water Consumption

There is growing concern about the environmental impact of bitcoin mining. Recent research reveals that the amount of electricity used in this process is approximately equivalent to the annual consumption of Poland. 🌍 The extensive energy requirements of bitcoin mining have now been linked to significant water usage. Each Individual bitcoin transaction consumes a staggering 741,809 gallons of water 💦, primarily due to the energy-intensive nature of mining.

The study sheds light on the correlation between water consumption and bitcoin mining, identifying regional disparities in resource depletion caused by the cryptocurrency. Countries with high mining activities, especially those heavily reliant on coal-fired power plants like China, contribute significantly to water usage. The energy required for mining comes indirectly from power plants, many of which rely on water for cooling purposes.

These findings underscore the urgent need for sustainable alternatives within the cryptocurrency industry. As concerns about climate change grow, the impact of bitcoin mining on energy consumption and water usage cannot be ignored. The research emphasizes the environmental implications of cryptocurrencies and highlights the necessity of adopting more eco-friendly practices in this sector. ♻️

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[ailtrahq]

Proof-of-Work (PoW) cryptocurrencies have long been debated under the umbrella of energy consumption. Earthjustice, an environment-focused non-profit organization, explains in its report “THE ENERGY BOMB,” how these assets are worsening the climate crisis. Coal Consumption is Still at Large Among Crypto Miners The document highlights energy consumption by Bitcoin (BTC), the flagship cryptocurrency, boomed from a gigawatt (GW) a day in 2017 to 11 GW/day in 2022. The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), a department of the US government, estimates crypto mining takes up to 66 Billion kWh/year or up to 1.7 percent of total annual energy consumption in the country. Primarily, China catered to global crypto mining operations until the government crackdown in 2021. Bitcoin mining, however, did not have much impact with much of computing transitioning to the US. Currently, the nation accounts for nearly 38 percent of global energy consumption by crypto mining operations. Source: Earthjustice Earthjustice, in their study, researched crypto mining facilities and located over 140 operations. It notes the usage of burning coal to generate electricity as one of the most destructive choices for the environment. Crypto miners’ acquisition of fossil fuel plants adds to rising carbon in the air. The document reads, “We have identified several fossil fuel power plants where greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and local pollution increased dramatically after those plants were acquired by cryptocurrency mining companies and began operating around-the-clock.” Source: Earthjustice The report adds that many companies also use electricity generated using oil and gas combustion. It may lead to the reopening of orphaned wells. Some miners capture methane from flaring to generate electricity. However, a California University professor describes it as a way to monetize flaring, not stop it. Crypto Mining Accounted For Up To 76M Tonnes of GHG Emissions in The US Moreover, Earthjustice believes the impact of crypto mining on climate and energy is substantial. Crypto miners do not readily disclose their energy consumption. The report says, “The most obvious way cryptocurrency mining increases global emissions is by driving huge increases in electricity demand.” Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s grid operator, estimates 33 GW of new cryptocurrency load to be interconnected by 2026. BTC mining operations in the US accounted for up to 76 Million tonnes of greenhouse emissions last year. As per the report, crypto mining “derails or reverse decarbonization in ways that go beyond simply adding electrical load.” Cheap renewable energy prices in the US caused many coal plants to retire due to high cost and risk of operation. However, this made them attractive for crypto miners acting on short-term profit strategies. Low acquisition costs and operation-ready infrastructure make such facilities an economic opportunity for them. Carbon emissions from crypto mining operations may vary from location to location. Marginal emissions, as Earthjustice puts it, emissions that are associated with incremental additions or reductions in demand lead to such variables. For example, a 300 MW data center in Texas may emit 1.6 Million tons of greenhouse gasses. Meanwhile, in North Dakota, the figure may convert to 2 Million.

[sarkos]

A crypto-mining company in Pennsylvania is seeking to burn tires to produce bitcoin, prompting an outcry from residents and environmental groups. Stronghold Digital Mining says it is repurposing waste materials, while opponents worry about the risks of emissions to human health. The production of cryptocurrency is an enormously energy-intensive process. Its electricity consumption accounts for an estimated 113 terawatt-hours a year, which is roughly the amount of electricity that countries such as Kazakhstan, the Philippines and Ukraine each used in 2022. Stronghold has been burning coal waste to create cheap power for cryptocurrency since 2021, when it bought the Panther Creek power plant in Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania. It is a controversial approach because although the removal of coal waste can help remediate contaminated land, the process emits greenhouse gases and other harmful chemicals. It can take twice as much waste coal to produce the same amount of electricity that regular coal would produce. The company also claims it sometimes needs to burn tire-derived fuel – made of shredded vehicle tires – to make the combustion of waste-coal more efficient. Additives such as the tire fuel “are especially needed when the quality of the coal refuse is low in energy content”, Stronghold spokesperson Naomi Harrington told the Guardian. The crypto miner, which receives state subsidies to burn waste coal, already holds a temporary permit to test the use of tire-derived fuel.

Burning tires and bridges: US residents shocked by firm’s bitcoin-mining plan | Pennsylvania | The Guardian

Somehow, they made bitcoin mining give you cancer too

[probablyasocialecologist]

In 2020 to 2021, Bitcoin consumed 173.42 terawatt hours of electricity - enough to rank it 27th among nations, trumping the likes of Pakistan with a population of over 230 million people. The resulting carbon footprint was the equivalent of burning 84 billion pounds of coal. To offset this, a study by the United Nations University found 3.9 billion trees would have to be planted, covering an area almost equal to the Netherlands, Switzerland, or Denmark.

Globally, bitcoin mining used 1.65 million liters (about 426,000 gallons) of water in 2020-2021, enough to fill more than 660,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. China, the U.S. and Canada had the largest water footprints. Kazakhstan and Iran, which along with the U.S. and China have suffered from water shortages, were also in the top-10 list for water footprint. “These are very, very worrying numbers,” Madani said. “Even hydropower, which some countries consider a clean source of renewable energy, has a huge footprint.”

[smarthomeease]

Fractional Reserve Carbon Accounting is an Attack on Bitcoin Mining

An upcoming New York Times article is expected to introduce “indirect fractional reserve carbon accounting” and target bitcoin mining. This is an opinion piece by Pierre Rochard, VP of Research at Riot Platforms. Bitcoin mining has zero carbon emissions and carbon reduction policies should focus on real carbon emitters like airplanes and coal-fired power plants. Focusing on zero-emission…

[worldspotlightnews]

Fractional Reserve Carbon Accounting Is An Attack On Bitcoin Mining

A forthcoming New York Times article is expected to introduce “fractional reserve indirect carbon accounting” and target bitcoin mining. This is an opinion editorial by Pierre Rochard, the vice president of research at Riot Platforms. Bitcoin mining has zero carbon emissions and policies to reduce carbon emissions should be focused on real carbon emitters like airplanes and coal power plants.…

[petnews2day]

Companies need to fix, not ignore, crypto’s growing climate impact

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Companies need to fix, not ignore, crypto’s growing climate impact

The U.S. coal industry has been on the decline for the past decades, but it has seen a resurgence with cryptocurrency miners restarting coal plants in states like Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Montana. For the largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, fossil fuels make the vast majority of its energy mix, with coal the top source of electricity for Bitcoin globally. Annually, Bitcoin has used as much electricity […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/ZpKh #OtherNews

[bitcofun]

Cryptocurrencies Marathon Digital ends up being 2nd biggest Bitcoin holder amongst public business, has actually not offered any BTC Liam 'Akiba' Wright ·18 hours back · 3 minutes read The incomes require Marathon Digital exposed a strong structure for the coming as it seeks to increase performance and its renewable resource mix. 3 minutes read Updated: November 9, 2022 at 12: 54 am Cover art/illustration by means of CryptoSlate Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel stated on a Nov. 8 incomes call that the business is going through a "shift duration" as it wants to grow from 7EH/s to 23 EH/s by mid-2023Cryptocurrencies Marathon increases hashrate Further, the business has actually increased its variety of Bitcoin miners to 6,000, leading to an increase from 72 BTC mined in July to 615 BTC by October. The boost led to October being the "most efficient month in history" for the Marathon. However, the business's revenues have actually fallen QoQ and YoY. Thiel mentioned, "we think Marathon has a strong structure. This structure is buoyed by reserves of 11,300 BTC, making Marathon the "second biggest holder amongst openly traded business." Furthermore, Thiel exposed that Marathon has actually not needed to offer any of its Bitcoin. Marathon has actually increased its hashrate by 84% by causing miners while likewise moving far from the Montana plant, which utilized coal energy. The renewable resource mix has actually therefore increased.Cryptocurrencies Best time to mine Bitcoin Thiel commented that there has actually been "no much better time to be scaling our bitcoin production ... utilizing miners that are 30% more effective." The Marathon CEO exposed that 60% of its hashrate will originate from Bitmain Antminer "S19 XP miners by the time we reach the 2023 objective of 23 EH/s." As an outcome, Marathon will utilize "47% less energy on a per TH basis" by making use of these innovative Bitcoin miners who are 30% more effective than the typical mining devices. Other miners, such as S9 and S19, need energy expenses of 3c and 8.5 KWh, respectively. The combination of the S19 XP miners "we're placed to keep the lights on when others are not," according to Thiel. The bulk of Marathon's capability is S19 J Pro miners." You'll see a bit of XPs coming online in Q4 ... the mix when completely released will be 66% of our hashrate ... Anecdotally the S19 XP is a much better quality maker, it has a cooler operating variety. You can run them in somewhat cautioning environments without needing to shut them down and increases the capability for overclocking them. "Cryptocurrencies Increase energy effectiveness Looking forward, Thiel said that "to drive worth, it's crucial to end up being more reliable and effective in time." Marathon is doing so by examining brand-new innovation and minimizing nonrenewable fuel source usage by going behind the meter at eco-friendly power websites. The Marathon CEO specified that the business is "making every effort to make Bitcoin mining more energy effective and sustainable." It is likewise examining global markets, which are ending up being progressively appealing due to developments in the energy area.Cryptocurrencies Q&An area When asked how well-positioned Marathon is to weather the bearishness, Thiel mentioned that he anticipates Bitcoin to trade within an $18 K-- $21 K variety for "a long time," and it is "extremely well placed to weather that storm." The variety is one that Marathon "feels really comfy with." On whether Marathon might seek to get other Bitcoin mining centers, Thiel argued that the market works inversely to lots of others. The "expense to change properties decreases when times get hard ... when the cost of Bitcoin drops, the rate of Bitcoin miners drops." As an outcome, Thiel thinks that purchasing miners from rivals implies acquiring out-of-date innovation for the many part.Cryptocurrencies Conclusion Overall, the call concentrated on Marathon's strong position to "weather the

storm" throughout the bearishness while highlighting the $18,000 assistance as the bottom of a variety that the business is "comfy with." In addition, approaching more effective mining and an increased renewable resource mix are core objectives for the business entering into 2023. In the last declaration, Thiel cautioned about Bitcoin's cost at the next halving occasion, which is anticipated in Q1 of 2024." If Bitcoin remained in state the teenagers at the time of the halving it would have major ramifications for the entire market." Read More