Excerpt
Bitcoin mining is harmful to the environment? Explore how Bitcoin brings electricity to Africa, supports renewable energy, stabilizes power grids, and offers financial freedom beyond traditional currency systems. Join me as I question whether we want our money backed by military force or by a community-driven, code-based system that empowers individuals globally.
Transcript
What is it that we want? Do we want money that’s backed by the military? Or do we want money that’s being backed by code, by the community, and by electricity?
Bitcoin is not worse for the environment than any other use of electricity. A lot of opinion articles in mainstream media are still totally wrong about Bitcoin. The narrative is “Bitcoin wastes energy”. It’s even worse, it’s useless.
What we can definitely say is that Bitcoin is not worse for the environment than any other use of electricity like for data centers, for our YouTube videos, for AI, for the industry in general, or just using ASICS.
Electricity Inequality and Energy Demand
If you’re new to this space maybe you watch my video on how Bitcoin enforces human rights.
Actually the usage and the need for new power will go up in the coming years. Why? Because there’s a big disparity in the use globally. 333 million people living in the USA consume 19 times more energy per person than 1.4 billion people living in Africa, and there is more energy consumed by Norway than in all Africa combined.
So the need will go up because all people want to live a good and secure life. The important part is what’s the source. Is it fossil fuels or is it a renewable form of energy?
A big part of Bitcoin mining is already powered by renewables.
The Traditional Financial System
The traditional monetary system, the creation of money in form of debt and credit, increases the need to grow because through inflation the value of our money goes down all the time. And credit is usually given to those who already have something—otherwise you don’t have the securities that the bank asks of you. And then with the low credit fees, you pay back your credit and you have gained, and this is the way how big corporations grow into mega corporations that bring the most damage to the world.
We need to find more ways to produce energy and electricity in a way that doesn’t increase CO₂ emittance.
Bitcoin Mining for the Greater Good
We have a few examples that show how Bitcoin mining contributes to the greater good.
It stabilizes electricity grids, supports the buildup of new renewable power stations, and brings electricity to corners of the world that otherwise would not have any electricity at all. It serves places where the traditional system cannot serve because there’s no money there to be made.
Miners are always trying to find the cheapest electricity. This is in general renewable electricity.
Miners are very mobile, they are location independent as they can operate anywhere in the world because they don’t need a grid. That means they can use sources like geothermal power in Iceland or small off-the-grid hydro power stations in African countries.
Reducing Energy Waste
A lot of electricity is being lost actually while it’s being transported from the source to the end consumer. Miners can use this electricity on site and at the same time they are buying excess electricity that no one else would need and it would go to waste.
For instance, in a small village by the name of Bondo in Malawi in Africa there has been a mini water pump station. I connected them with Gridless, and now the Bitcoin miners are paying for the electricity and a hydro power mining grid was installed through which the people in Bondo now can have electricity for the first time in their lives.
Mini Grids and Bitcoin Sustainability
Mini grids are especially after their initial setup not sustainable. It’s too costly to build a mini hydro power station with a mini grid somewhere in the middle of nowhere where you only have a handful of consumers paying for the buildup.
Bitcoin miners come in here.
Positive factors playing into Bitcoin mining:
- Bitcoin miners are using otherwise wasted energy.
- They bring financial stability as a buyer of first resource.
- They support the buildup of a new power station.
Up until now most of these mining grids and power stations in African countries have been financed by donors. It was always given from outside. Now with Bitcoin miners, people can stay independent, and Bitcoin miners are buyers of last resort in the case of wasted energy. They still pay for the electricity.
Grid Balancing and Heat Reuse
And last but not least they are important as a grid balancer because they are providing demand response services to keep the grid stable.
Bitcoin miners can be turned on and off very fast.
Last year in winter in Texas there was a big blackout because the grid was overloaded. The Bitcoin miners there have an agreement that if the grid is unstable or there is more need for electricity from the end consumers then they stop their machines, and as soon as the situation is normal again they can turn it on again.
Miners also produce a lot of heat which can also be used.
For instance, in the Virunga National Park in the Congo, there has been mining going on for several years now. They started to use the heat from the miners to dry the cocoa that is being harvested there. Up until now the cocoa was laying outside on the ground and it was dried by the sun. This is ineffective and prevented them from selling it to the European Union for sanitary reasons.
In Malawi in Bondo, people are now thinking about starting to dry pineapples and sell it or to dry the tea leaves that they are harvesting.
Also, if you run a home miner, people are heating their homes with the energy coming from that.
What Kind of Money Do We Want?
Is Bitcoin mining good, is it bad?
I know Bitcoin fulfills a lot of needs. It empowers people, it brings financial freedom to individuals, it allows human rights activists to do their work.
And don’t forget the US military emits far more CO₂ than many nation states to secure the petrodollar, which is the basis of the trust people lay into the US dollar globally.
What is it that we want?
Do we want money that’s backed by the military or do we want money that’s being backed by code, by the community and by electricity—money which helps communities prosper, bringing financial empowerment and freedom to each and every one of us?
