According to some prominent stakeholders, nuclear energy may be the greatest option for Bitcoin miners. As demand to go green grows, major participants in the Bitcoin (BTC) mining business have their sights set on nuclear energy.
Nuclear energy has the potential to add “enormous volumes of pure, carbon-free” electricity to the baseload, GRIID vice president Harry Sudok stated at the ‘Bitcoin & Beyond Virtual Summit’ on Nov. 10. GRIDD is an American firm that sources low-cost renewable energy in order to construct vertically integrated Bitcoin mining operations.
Sudock believes that previous subsidy programs and debates on renewable energy have mostly concentrated on solar and wind energy and have largely ignored the potential benefits of nuclear energy.
“Right now, the growth rate is mostly concentrated on solar and wind, which is simply the reality of the initiatives implemented over the last eight to ten years. However, what we would like to see is an expansion of nuclear energy,” he stated.
Samson Mow, chief strategy officer of Blockstream, joined Sudock on a panel to explore the complexity of Bitcoin mining and energy consumption.
Mow referred to the hegemonic position that ‘FUD’ frequently plays in conversations about Bitcoin mining, which he claimed can result in misunderstandings concerning not only Bitcoin mining but also energy generation more broadly.
These misunderstandings are “resulting in these ludicrous headlines about Bitcoin threatening to boil the oceans,” he explained.
“The wider picture is frequently overlooked since Bitcoin mining consumes a negligible amount of energy globally — like a fraction of a percent,” Mow explained. “If we are filthy, everything is filthy, correct?”
Mow is also an advocate for using nuclear energy to power Bitcoin mining. “The issue is that we have regressed as a civilization in that we have rejected nuclear energy in favor of wind and solar, which are more expensive, more difficult to create, and do not always work,” Mow explained.
The Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) conducted a survey of approximately 33% of the existing global Bitcoin network last month. According to BMC, the worldwide mining industry’s sustainable electricity mix increased by around 3%, to 55.9% in the third quarter of this year.
“Bitcoin miners will seek the least expensive form of electricity available,” Amanda Fabiano stated at the summit. Fabiano is the head of mining for Galaxy Digital, a digital asset investment management organization, and a founder member of BMC.
“I believe that capital that is committed to sustainability will find an excellent home in Bitcoin mining.”
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