Bitcoin goes into ESG overdrive
Bitcoin goes into ESG overdrive
Miners embrace carbon offsets, renewable-powered ASICs and commitments to decarbonise as Elon Musk drops bitcoin bombshell
The campaign to ‘green’ bitcoin mining is going into overdrive amid criticism from Tesla CEO Elon Musk over the cryptocurrency’s fossil fuel consumption. One gas-powered miner has been particularly proactive on the ESG front after being singled out by the eccentric billionaire rocket enthusiast.
Greenidge Generation, which operates an ageing gas-fired peaking power station in upstate New York, said its bitcoin mining operation will become “entirely carbon neutral” by offsetting its emissions.
Greenidge will do this by purchasing voluntary carbon offsets from a “portfolio of U.S. greenhouse gas reduction projects”. The company describes this as a “bold and unique step” — which holds true for bitcoin miners, if not the wider fossil energy industry.
Offsets are all the rage in the energy space, with oil majors and LNG producers increasingly trading ‘carbon neutral’ barrels of crude and cargoes of liquefied natural gas.
Greenidge wi…