Bitcoin can achieve zero emissions by 2024

Despite all the promises of a decentralized currency free from government controls, Bitcoin has received widespread criticism for the massive amounts of energy consumed by the millions of nodes and mining rigs out there that generate the proof-of-work calculations – but that criticism has not subsided on deaf ears, and a number of major mining operators are now opting for renewable energy sources in an effort to reduce BTC’s carbon emissions, with plans to reach zero emissions across the network by 2024.

What’s more, they appear to be well on their way to achieving that goal, with 62.4% of the network running on zero emissions by accounting for carbon negative mining.

Bitcoin net zero emissions trend line chart. Source: Bat Coinz.

A new study by Bat Coinz has reportedly shown that Bitcoin is set to achieve net zero emissions by December 2024, with a relatively limited number of landfills providing the full 187.1MW of electricity the network uses.

“To put into context how achievable this is,” the report states, “if Bitcoin miners focused on using previously vented sources of methane emissions (ie: vented landfill gas), it would only take 124 x 1.5 MW modules (around 50 middle of the aisle). -big US landfills that burn methane for Bitcoin mining) to make the entire Bitcoin network carbon negative.”

If all goes according to plan, it could put Bitcoin on track to become the world’s first monetary system to achieve net zero emissions without buying offsets. “We expect that Bitcoin mining using vented methane as power will initially grow at only 83% of the growth rate of flared gas mining (6.9 MW/month),” the study said. “Based on this more modest growth rate, we estimate that the Bitcoin network will become fully carbon neutral in Q4, 2024.”

There are some caveats here

Look, there is surely some caveats here. First, there is the question of whether running anything with landfill gas is truly “carbon negative”, but burning off methane from sources such as biogas or landfills that would have entered the atmosphere is one of the four recognized forms of carbon capture technology, and is recognized by Nasdaq as “one of the few carbon-negative fuel sources.”

That said, there’s another argument to be made here – and that’s whether any amount of energy spent on Bitcoin is “worth it” when that energy could be used to shore up California’s power grid during record heat waves, such as .

This was actually the very point of these pages, when Dr. Max Holland wrote that “although the bitcoin network used renewable generated electricity for a significant part of its ‘work’, since this work is essentially extra and wasteful compared to functional alternatives , it is an opportunity cost. This is the missed opportunity to use such renewable energy to instead displace coal-fired energy for household well-being, and for other basic economic tasks. This broader context makes a moot point of the protest that bitcoin’s huge energy consumption is “renewable compatible.”

I would argue, first, that the “functional alternatives” to Bitcoin (ie traditional banking and government-issued fiat currency) have done more harm to the planet by enforcing class structures, enabling predatory finance, and siphoning resources from the most vulnerable communities. over the past few decades than they usually get credit for, and that the good doctor’s rejection of it speaks to his own privileged position as a de-facto benefactor of that status quo, but we’re not here to weigh the merits of Bitcoin.

Instead, we’re reporting on the fact that Bitcoin has gotten significantly “greener” since the last time you checked in on it—whether that’s enough to make it a more attractive proposition for you than it has been in the past is up to you.

You can read the report for yourself here, so let us know if a carbon-neutral Bitcoin will be enough to convince you to take a second look at the cryptocurrency in the comments section.

Sources: BatCoinz, via Finbold.

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