Will Greenpeace change its mind about Bitcoin now? New report

Greenpeace’s smear campaign against Bitcoin has picked up again in recent days. Greenpeace published an article in which the environmental organization called on major financial services firms such as Fidelity to acknowledge Bitcoin’s climate impact and “take responsibility for the problem.”

In addition, the Greenpeace-commissioned Bitcoin Skull attracted attention as part of the “Change the Code, not the Climate” initiative. However, Greenpeace’s action backfired when the climate activist and artist Von Wong expressed that he himself was no longer convinced by the Greenpeace campaign.

“I was led to believe that Bitcoin mining was a simple black and white problem. I’ve spent my entire career trying to reduce physical waste in the real world, and PoW intuitively felt like a waste. Of course, I was wrong. Few things in the world are black and white. Silly me,” von Wong wrote on Twitter after engaging with the Bitcoin community.

Will Greenpeace Rethink Bitcoin?

If Greenpeace has integrity and is not driven by its dubious donors, the organization must cancel its campaign and even support Bitcoin.

Bitcoin and climate activist Daniel Batten has released new research showing that BTC’s main source of energy is hydropower, which accounts for 23% of its total energy. Fossil fuel sources have declined by a total of 6.2% per year since January 2020.

“Surprising fact: Bitcoin mining is the only major global industry whose primary energy source is not a fossil fuel. The primary power source for the global grid is coal (36.7%),” Batten wrote in a tweet. With his research, Batten thus refuted an often postulated claim by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF) that coal is the main power source used by the BTC network.

Unlike the CCAF, Batten included off-grid mining in his investigation, providing a complete picture of the Bitcoin network. The most important source of energy is hydropower (23%), followed by coal, gas and wind.

Batten found that off-grid generated 15.8% of its electricity from hydropower, but more than half of sustainable off-grid mining is powered by hydropower. Sustainable mining companies such as OceanFalls, Blockfusion, Hut8, Iris, Sato, Terawulf, Statar/Lake Parime, Gridshare, and HPG are examples of companies that are either 100% or primarily hydro-powered, according to the Bitcoin activist.

The second largest source of sustainable energy is wind power, which now accounts for nearly 14% of the total Bitcoin mining power. “Companies like Marathon, with 14 EH hashrate, where the heavy component is wind farms behind the meter, contribute to this strong showing,” said Batten.

Additionally, the high 25% of wind power on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid is another factor in wind power’s strong showing, he said. As for coal and mining, Batten found that Bitcoin, like eVs, is a fully electrified technology with zero direct emissions.

The emissions come from the use of electricity, some of which is produced with fossil fuel. In comparison, Bitcoin mining actually performs better. Assuming eVs are proportionally distributed around the world and using the global grid mix, one must assume that coal is the main source at 36.7%, followed by gas at 23.5%.

Compared to eVs, Bitcoin mining uses a similar proportion of gas (21.14%), but a significantly lower use of coal as an energy source (22.92%): 38% less than eVs.

Looking ahead, Batten explained that the BEEST model suggests that the sustainable mix of the BTC network is currently growing at 6.2% per year. If this growth continues, it will cause the relative shares of coal, gas and other fossil fuel sources to continue to decline.

In addition, Bitcoin can help shape the energy transition because mining systems can be switched on and off very flexibly, acting as spontaneous consumers of surplus production. They can therefore not only be used to better manage the utilization of the energy grids, but also to make renewable energy more quickly profitable through BTC-induced cross-financing.

In a recent Twitter space, Batten noted about Greenpeace:

This will be a big surprise that the plot has not only worked, but that it is actually a counterattack. They are now subject to the same scrutiny to which they usually hold people accountable. So this will be new for them.

At press time, the BTC price was $28,030.

Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView.com