3 Environmentalists Fighting Climate Change With Bitcoin
Activists display prints replicating solar cells during a rally to mark Earth Day at Lafayette … [+]
There are hundreds of environmentalists around the world who believe the bitcoin ecosystem could actually help reduce carbon emissions and increase reliance on renewable energy. Renewable energy sources, like wind and solar power, provide inconsistent power to the grids in places like Texas. Bitcoin mining is a flexible load, allowing miners to ramp up and down with the sometimes-unpredictable production schedules of wind and solar.
Adding bitcoin miners to the mix allows the electricity system to store energy and value, plus to fluctuate mining in accordance with urban demands to keep the power grid steady. And that’s just one of many reasons that environmentalists are thinking about bitcoin on Earth Day 2023.
Most of these bitcoin-savvy environmentalists aren’t talking about a switch to proof-of-stake, the less power-intensive alternative system the Ethereum
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Why Bitcoin PoW Requires So Much Energy
The Bitcoin network uses a consensus mechanism referred to as PoW, where computers use electricity to solve cryptographic problems. The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, as of February 2023, revealed experts estimate that more than half of bitcoin’s global power consumption already comes from renewable sources.
Although critics often vilify PoW’s electricity use, it is precisely this mechanism that gives bitcoin miners the ability to complement renewable energy projects. Bitcoin mining machines are also scalable and transportable, allowing operators to monetize wasted and stranded energy at the source, such as capturing methane gas.
Here are a few environmentalists who are leveraging bitcoin mining in unique ways to help meet clean energy and environmental goals.
The Climate Investor
Daniel Batten is cofounder of CH4 Capital, which funds projects that reduce landfill emissions by turning vented methane into electricity. He’s been a climate-tech investor since 2018, and a climate activist since 1997. Batten’s early opinions on bitcoin ranged from uninterested to appalled.
After exhausting efforts to minimize his personal footprint, Batten realized that the only important metric was emissions. This spark ignited his journey into the bitcoin space, which he credits with making him an even more passionate climate activist.
Batten’s research eventually led him to vented methane from landfills, a major source of global emissions. His company is now assisting landfills in harnessing the methane to generate electricity for bitcoin mining. By transforming the gas into a revenue stream, Batten is optimistic that bitcoin mining will grow to become a formidable weapon in his fight against climate change.
The Renewable Energy Entrepreneur
Nathaniel Harmon and Michael Bennett are both co-founders of OceanBit, the company developing a Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion technique to use temperature variation in ocean water to generate clean energy. Harmon and Bennett bootstrapped the company with help from friends and family. The Department of Energy also provided a subaward grant. Harmon told me that their goal is to begin raising outside money this year.
Harmon began his climate journey after experiencing reef bleaching first hand while working as a scuba instructor. He found bitcoin early, leveraging the 2013 bull market to fund his master’s degree at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
He is now working on a free-floating 10 megawatt OTEC power plant with bitcoin miners. The bitcoin revenue will allow OTEC platforms to achieve economies of scale, making the energy more affordable, a feat not previously possible with isolated ocean power plants before bitcoin.
Harmon says that the mining platform will also be “sequestering megatons of carbon and creating an open ocean hyper-productive fishery.” He is optimistic that OTEC is a solution with the potential to make bitcoin mining profitable without increasing carbon emissions.
The Climate Positive Asset Connector
Elliott David is the head of climate strategy and partnerships at the fintech startup called Sustainable Bitcoin Protocol. The SBP incentivizes bitcoin miners to use verified clean energy sources by aligning with climate conscious investors. David believes that, over the next decade, bitcoin mining will be responsible for more clean energy development than the bitcoin network can consume, eventually transforming bitcoin into a “climate positive asset.”
David told me he is optimistic that free market forces will be the driving factor in the clean energy transition. All things considered, bitcoin users around the world are all celebrating Earth Day by researching and experimenting with different ways to use bitcoin mining to promote a massive transition to renewable and clean energy sources. Bitcoin’s PoW mechanism makes it great for pairing with hydropower, wind and solar power too. The above-mentioned scientists all see bitcoin as a core pillar of a sustainable future with fewer carbon emissions.
“If they [miners] are benefiting the planet then they should get paid for it,” David said in an interview with me. “By changing the narrative around bitcoin, we can unlock its potential as one of the world’s most powerful climate positive asset classes.”
