In order to earn Bitcoin, people use specialized computers to solve complex system-generated math puzzles.
Jeremy Hinsdale, writing for Columbia University’s State of the Planet, calls this crypto’s “dirty little secret.” To the environmentalists’ horror, the computers competing to earn Bitcoin and other currencies consume as much electricity as entire countries like Argentina and Thailand.
When electricity is in high demand and prices are climbing, the computers can be switched off; when demand is low and prices are falling, they can be switched back on.
While natural gas is a valuable resource, when there isn’t the appropriate infrastructure to capture it and deliver it for sale, sometimes the most economic choice is to simply burn it on the spot.
Crusoe says it will have 100 units up and running in 2022, adding operations in the major oil and gas producing states of Texas and New Mexico to its existing footprint in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota.
As reporter Evan Walker explains, Bitcoin Bloem mines directly inside farmers’ greenhouses and pays the electricity bill so that the farmer gets free heat to boost crop growth.
Across the sea in Norway, a company called Kryptovault uses its excess heat to aid the local lumber industry, drying out logs free of charge.
According to plant owner Eduardo Kooper, “I was very skeptical at first, but we saw that this business consumes a lot of energy and we have a surplus.” The hydroelectric company, Reuters writes, invested $500,000 to venture into hosting miners.
Across the world, cryptocurrency is flipping the environmentalist script.
In an economy upended by the coronavirus, shortages and price spikes have hit everything from lumber to computer chips.