MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and billionaire Elon Musk decided to meet with top Bitcoin miners, to discuss ways to improve the environmental impact of the cryptocurrency in question. They later announced the formation of a 'Bitcoin Mining Council' in May, whose main objective is to promote the use of renewable energy within the crypto mining industry. Therefore, a total of 14 companies in the sector, including Galaxy Digital, are part of the BMC, in addition to its nine founders.
Subsequently, the 'Bitcoin Mining Council', announced in its last report published on July 1, that Bitcoin mining is "one of the most sustainable industries in the world." This report describes that the mining sector has achieved a sustainable energy mix of 56% during the second quarter of 2021. This report is a first effort by the Council to try to counter much of the misinformation that has emerged in recent weeks regarding this issue. However, some ecosystem experts were not very satisfied with the report's results. Larry Cermak, director of research at The Block, questioned the study for using a dubious methodology to conclude the 56% figure.
Furthermore, Michael Saylor applauded the study as an important step in bringing more transparency and understanding to the Bitcoin mining industry, noting that the mining industry has voluntarily worked to provide critical information to the general public and policy makers.
According to the indicators in the second graph, the BMC ensures that the use of sustainable combined energy has grown within Bitcoin mining, compared to the 162,194 terawatt hours (TWh) of the total energy consumed globally. The data shows that the Bitcoin network consumes an “insignificant” amount of 189 TWh (0.117%), even well below the countries specified in said graph.
According to the BMC, the results were obtained through a three-question survey that was answered by 32% of the miners in the network. The study revealed that 67% of respondents currently use electrical energy in combination with sustainable energy (hydroelectric, wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal energy generation, etc.), a figure that was used as the basis for their estimate of 56% in all network.
It is also worth mentioning that according to a real-time estimate from the University of Cambridge's Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, widely cited mining statistics were provided which suggest that 39% of the energy used in the total Bitcoin hashrate comes from renewable energy, and that 76% of miners use renewable energy in their energy mix.
Without a doubt the environmental impact of crypto mining was one of the main reasons why the price of bitcoin has been very volatile in recent months, especially when Elon Musk expressed his concern about the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining and said that Tesla I would no longer accept btc for car sales. However, it has stated that it would reintroduce btc payments when there is a "confirmation of a reasonable use of clean energy (50%) by the miners with a positive future trend.
