After an online summit with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been an outspoken supporter of cryptocurrency in recent months especially, Bitcoin miners have promised to cut their carbon footprints by transitioning to renewables, according to The Telegraph.
During the weekend Zoom meeting, London-listed Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain shared plans to publish a 2020 energy use audit report. According to the miner’s chief executive, Peter Wall, many Bitcoin miners share Musk’s concerns about energy use in mining Bitcoin.
“Elon asked good questions. His engagement level was excellent. He’s obviously a smart guy. He’s an influential individual and has the ability to have a big impact, so the more people from all industries that can engage with him and share what they know, the better it will be,” said Wall, in an interview with The Telegraph.
On Sunday, Elon Musk said that Bitcoin miners “committed to publish current & planned renewable usage,” signaling a shift towards clean energy-run crypto mining operations.
Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2021
Wall was asked if Musk had ‘won over’ Bitcoin miners. Wall responded, “I think that we’re moving in the right direction. The more that ESG [environmental, social, and governance] concerns can be addressed…the more people like Tesla will feel comfortable buying and holding Bitcoin.”
A new ‘Bitcoin Mining Council’ was formed by eight companies, with a pledge to release standardized energy use reporting, and also advocate for renewable energy, according to Michael Saylor from MicroStrategy, with the latter a major investor in Bitcoin.
Tesla earned $272 million in Bitcoin gains in this year’s first quarter, a result of a prior $1.5 billion investment into the cryptocurrency. The company also began accepting Bitcoin as payment for its cars, though it suspended Bitcoin payments shortly thereafter, allegedly because of its environmental impact.
Musk announced earlier this month that he was working with meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin’s developers to improve transaction efficiency. In a later update, a Dogecoin developer revealed that Musk had been working with the Dogecoin team since 2019, going on to say that Musk provided “lots of advice and input” and “encouraged them to improve the higher transaction throughout.”
