Energy
Concerns
Concerns
If a person's work or investments have negative consequences on the environment then an inflationary monetary policy compounds the damage. Why? Because the money resulting from that work or investment is inflated away, leading to more demand for work and investments. Fix the money, fix the world, as the Bitcoin community says.
Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, argues that the highest-value use of intermittent or stranded energy is Bitcoin mining. Taking his point further: "Bitcoin is the most efficient use of energy that the human race has yet come up with.''
Bitcoin miners have high energy costs and large capital expenditures in the form of mining hardware and cooling infrastructure. Yet their return on investment far exceeds that of most US corporations. This large ROI incentivizes the creation of renewable energy networks to reduce energy costs. Bitcoin mining's energy source is increasingly shifting to renewables such as flare gas, hydroelectric, solar, and geothermal energy.
Government-run Bitcoin mining operations offer potential synergies. Renewable energy networks built for Bitcoin mining could provide clean energy to the population at low or marginal cost.
Hass McCook is a chartered civil engineer and Oxford MBA with expertise in building civil infrastructure. In the article below McCook says: "Bitcoin mining is the closest thing to a perfectly competitive market that has ever existed in the real world...If clean energy is the cheapest energy available, that is what will power Bitcoin.''
Some quick facts and projections on Bitcoin's energy use:
Bitcoin's global energy use is currently cleaner, on average, than the world's energy grid.
Bitcoin's total global energy use is currently over 50% renewables.
Bitcoin's 2026 carbon dioxide emissions will be less than a third of what they are in 2021.
Bitcoin's 2031 carbon dioxide emissions will be zero.
Here's a detailed analysis of Bitcoin's future price, hashrate (miner efficiency), energy mix and emissions:
Projecting Bitcoin's Energy Use