Kevin O'Leary, the Wall Street venture capitalist who recently invested 3% of his capital in bitcoin, says investors are interested in how the popular cryptocurrency is mined, considering the controversy surrounding its energy consumption. .
During his participation on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover" show, the popular investor and star of the reality show 'Shark Tank', Kevin O'Leary, stated that investors and Wall Street institutions are eager for greater transparency about how and what is used to mine valuable bitcoins.
The investor, who drastically changed his perception of Bitcoin, going from calling it a bubble and a useless asset, to a cryptocurrency with potential that is here to stay, points out that this level of understanding and transparency will favor the adoption of Bitcoin in the heart of the stock markets. of American securities. As O'Leary explained, investors want bitcoins, but they do not want to be participants in a monetary system that can cause serious damage to the planet; something quite contradictory if what they intend is to continue using the traditional banking system, which by 2018 consumed at least 3 times more energy than the Bitcoin network; According to data revealed by the expert in electrical and computer engineering, Katarina M. Kelly-Pitou.
Although several experts and even the International Energy Agency (IEA) have shown precise data on Bitcoin's energy consumption, which is currently less than 0,5% of all annual energy, this continues to be one of the most debated topics today. globally, so large mining companies and interested parties are taking matters into their own hands.
It may interest you: Bitcoin mining consumes less than 0,5% of global energy
Trend towards alternative energy sources
One of the most attractive reasons for the alternative and decentralized financial system that is Bitcoin is its constant movement and innovation. Since the birth of the network in 2009, Bitcoin has not stopped evolving. Its team of dedicated developers have come up with improvements, tools, updates and much more, to always offer the highest standards of security and innovation to network users and investors. But miners also enter this constant innovation.
For years, large Bitcoin mining farms and interested parties have been working on developing new alternatives that minimize the environmental impact of network energy consumption, using alternative energy sources.
Although many of these solutions are in development, today they are also a reality, allowing large farms to continue mining bitcoins on the network, with minimal environmental impact. For example, recently, the company Highwire Energy Partners, located in the state of Wyoming, United States, has been taking advantage of natural gas wasted by natural gas extraction companies operating in the state.
The company manufactured electrical generators that use natural gas from abandoned gas wells as fuel to operate. Without a doubt, an innovative idea that is giving a new use to the surplus natural gas that is wasted and burned in the environment.
Source: Oil City News
Highwire Energy Partners places the power generators directly into the gas well, and the bitcoin mining equipment is in portable containers, making it easy to transport and reducing the need to build a pipeline to harness the gas as a natural fuel.
Environmentally friendly mining
On the other hand, in other parts of the United States, Russia and other countries, miners are also looking for alternatives to mine bitcoins in an environmentally friendly way. The companies Upstream Data, Crusoe Energy Systems y gazpromneft They are connecting their Bitcoin mining farms with oil exploitation sites, to take advantage of the residual derivatives produced by this activity and transform it into clean energy that is beneficial to everyone.
Oil activity is known for generating a large amount of waste gas, such as CO2, which is highly polluting for the environment. The aforementioned companies are taking advantage of this waste to further promote the profitability and profit of bitcoin mining, providing a much cheaper energy supply for the industry and more environmentally friendly.
Gazpromneft noted that Russia produces about 340 billion cubic meters of waste gas every 6 months, which is dumped into the environment. With its pilot test, the company managed to mine 1,8 BTC with a consumption of 49.500 cubic meters of this gas.
The company Equinor, based in Norway, is also taking advantage of surplus natural gas to generate electricity and make Bitcoin mining a more profitable and planet-friendly activity.
The Sustainability Manager of Global Unconventionals (GLU), Lionel Ribeiro, pointed out that cryptocurrency mining is an activity that requires a lot of electricity to power computing equipment. However, large oil corporations waste a valuable commodity, such as gas, in unimaginable quantities, creating carbon emissions that seriously affect our atmosphere. Lionel Ribeiro also highlighted that connecting these inverse problems means that both needs are satisfied without generating waste for the planet, or increasing the costs of these activities.
Continue reading: Gazpromneft shows a new horizon for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining
