- “Green Bitcoin mining” concerns will be a thing of the past
- BTC is down from $65,000 high but will soon catapult higher to pare with gold’s market cap
Bitcoin Energy Debate Is ‘Kerfuffle’
Ex-New York Stock Exchange President Thomas Farley appeared on CNBC Wednesday to talk about Bitcoin. He mentioned pretty clearly why all the noise around BTC’s mining energy consumption is just sad banter. However, he sounded confident about all the energy hullaballoo to be soon resolved.
Elon Musk should pay special attention to this as he plans to “again” accept Bitcoin payments for Tesla sales. He, of all folks, should especially understand how “new innovations require more energy,” as Mr. Marley said while taking his stand on the BTC side of the energy debate.
Adding further to his point, the NYSE boss continued:
“We are not going to Mars, we are not going to increase GDP, we are not going to be efficient as a society. So if you believe that blockchain is an interesting tool, that it’s going to be efficient and add to the gains in economy and quality of life. You have to bear some increase in energy use.”
Mr. Musk, that’s a reality check for you right there.
Renewable Game Strong
As much as critics like to bash Bitcoin for energy-guzzling through fossil fuels, the truth is vastly different. Before the Chinese mining exodus, a fair amount of BTC was mined using renewable energy sources. Chris Bowden, managing director of clean energy firm Squeaky, points this out in a conversation with Power Technology:
This is evident in the shift of mining operations to parts of China in the wet season. During this time, massive amounts of clean energy are wasted every year in Sichuan and Yunnan, as production capacity significantly outstrips local demand. The cost of grid infrastructure to transport this energy to urban areas doesn’t make economic sense.
“As a result, it makes a lot of sense to shift bitcoin mining operations to these areas in the wet season, and this is why China is responsible for almost 10% of global bitcoin mining in the dry season and 50% in the wet season.
Currently, 39% of Bitcoin mining rigs overall employ renewable energy, but the future is bright. Research by the investment firm ARK Invest suggests that bitcoin mining could pave the way for massive solar energy adoption.
With bitcoin mining integrated into a solar system, however, energy providers – whether utilities or independent
entities – would have the ability to play the arbitrage between electricity prices and bitcoin prices, as well as potentially sell the “surplus” solar and supply almost all grid power demands without lowering profitability.
$10 Trillion
The recent downslide in Bitcoin prices and the weakness in market sentiment are transitory. Data shows that large scale investors (aka whales) hedge funds, investment firms are wildly bullish on the flagship cryptocurrency. Even when the downtrend, they are in accumulation mode.
Also Read: Why this Bitcoin ETF continued accumulating BTC even amid selloffs?
The recent shakeup in the Bitcoin mining scenario in China will lead to a major shift to renewable energy. Countries such as El Salvador are already at the forefront.
Also Read: El Salvador to gift $30 in Bitcoin to every adult citizen
And with Bitcoin going primarily green and the rising sustainable investment sentiment amongst global investors, the time is not far when capital will move from oil, gold to BTC markets.
As Thomas Marley said in his CNBC interview, “… I think the upper bound for now is gold, which is about a $10 trillion market cap”. But he also added that “for Bitcoin to exceed gold someday, it will have to be an accepted form of currency.” Mr. Marley expects BTC to touch a near $10 trillion market cap within the next five years.
