Use of green energy in bitcoin mining jumped to 56% in June quarter: Report

NEW DELHI: The global bitcoin mining industry’s sustainable electricity mix more than doubled to around 56% during the June quarter, making it one of the most sustainable industries worldwide, according to a report by Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC). The share of green energy in bitcoin mining in the preceding quarter was 36.8%

The council is a voluntary and open forum of bitcoin mining companies and other firms in the industry that aims to promote transparency, share best practices, and educate the public on the benefits of bitcoin and its mining.

The amount of green energy used in bitcoin mining assumes significance as the world’s biggest cryptocurrency has come under severe criticism during the last three months over its environmental impact.

In its first quarterly survey released on Thursday, BMC, which was founded in May 2021, focused on two metrics: electricity consumption and sustainable power mix of bitcoin.

The council revealed that it collected sustainable energy information from over 32% of the current global bitcoin network for its survey. The results showed that the members of the BMC and participants in the survey are currently utilizing electricity with a 67% sustainable power mix.

“Based on this data it is estimated that the global mining industry’s sustainable electricity mix had grown to approximately 56%, during Q2 2021, making it one of the most sustainable industries globally,” BMC said in a release.

Amid the concerns over the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining, Tesla chief Elon Musk had earlier halted purchases of vehicles with bitcoin. The rebuke by Musk along with China shutting down bitcoin mining operations due to concerns over energy consumption has hit sentiment in the crypto market.

From a record high of $64,804.72, hit in April, Bitcoin has slumped as much as 50% to sub-$30,000. The digital asset traded at around $33,000 on Friday.

The BMC report also noted that despite China shutting down over 60% of the global bitcoin network, it experienced zero downtime, bailouts, registered no bankruptcies and adapted by redeploying infrastructure into regions that have greater freedoms.

The mining of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether generally involves solving complex mathematical problems. According to experts, bitcoin’s mining difficulty level is much higher than coins such as dogecoin, which results in much higher power consumption, but this also means that the cryptocurrency is much more secure than dogecoin.