2023 will be the death of Bitcoin Energy FUD

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Bitcoin has seen many ups and downs in 2022, but one particular victory has been the growing recognition that Bitcoin is good for humanity’s relationship with energy and the environment. Could 2023 be the year the energy FUD around Bitcoin finally dies?

Kent Halliburton is the president and chief operating officer of Sazmining. This article is part of CoinDesk’s Crypto 2023.

Green bitcoiners enter

So-called green bitcoiners have been making their voices heard over the past 12 months and putting forth innovative ideas. Troy Cross, a philosophy professor at Reed College in Oregon and a member of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, discussed several ideas about bitcoin (BTC) mining and energy that bitcoiners are still struggling with.

Along with Yale-NUS philosophy professor Andrew Bailey, Cross argued that bitcoiners have some sort of moral duty to uphold when it comes to bitcoin and the environment. They say their ideas are a way to invest in bitcoin without contributing even slightly to unsustainable bitcoin mining. (Their white paper came out in late 2021, but gained traction in 2022.)

Meanwhile, cleantech investor Daniel Batten has conducted groundbreaking research into bitcoin mining and may have found a way to drastically reduce humanity’s methane problem. Batten explained through careful calculations how and why bitcoin mining is the only available technology that can mitigate humanity’s methane emissions on a large scale.

Finally, in 2022, Jason Maier funded and wrote his book, A Progressives Case for Bitcoin. He argues that Bitcoin is, contrary to critics, a net positive for the environment.

The dawn of green business

In 2022, several bitcoin-focused ventures were launched with a mandate to prove the viability that the Bitcoin blockchain could help fight climate change through competition and free markets. Synota, for example, was founded this year and raised a $3 million seed round to further its mission.

The story continues

The company’s platform allows energy companies and their customers to exchange energy and money more frequently and with less friction than traditional payment rails. It is a use that can promote global energy abundance by integrating Bitcoins Lightning Network and energy, they write.

Read more: The more energy Bitcoin uses, the better

Have you heard of the company that turns landfill waste into BTC? Vespane launched this year and uses methane emissions from landfills as fuel to power bitcoin miners, putting into practice what Batten theorized. In August, it closed a $4.3 million funding round to continue its pioneering project in negative carbon mining.

Finally, Jack Dorsey’s digital payments company, Block, and Alyse Killeens’ venture capital firm, Stillmark, recently invested in a company that is building renewable bitcoin mining sites in parts of Africa that have excess electricity. Still in the seed stage, Gridless plans to launch a hydroelectric mine site in Malawi and a solar mine site in West Africa in 2023.

Certainly, criticisms of the energy consumption and environmental impact of bitcoin networks have drastically reduced adoption. For some, the grid has become synonymous with wasted electricity and electronic waste. But the situation is changing rapidly.

Read more: ECB official says energy-intensive crypto should be banned

Just like when Chinese President Xi banned crypto, it only helped prove how unstoppable the Bitcoin network is, environmental critics of Bitcoin favor a green revolution that will show how adaptable and sustainable Bitcoin can be. The meteoric rise of new research, voices and visions of what Bitcoin could be demonstrates this.

Bitcoin can and will be a net positive for energy and the environment. In 2023, as green bitcoin research and industry continues to innovate, energy and environmental FUD will no longer be tenable.

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