2018-12-1 22:32 |
How Using Solar Energy Can Help Make Mining Cryptos Ecofriendly
Lately, there’s been a lot of concern about the environmental damages caused by crypto mining. These damages are caused by vast amounts of electricity consumed during the process of powering ASIC devices and mining cryptos.
However, instead of depending on traditional energy sources for electricity, a new Harvard Business Review paper has suggested an alternate energy source in the form of solar energy.
According to studies, the amount of energy needed to power and keep blockchain technologies running, exceeded the energy outputs of over 155 countries across the globe.
Naturally, sudden power consumption at this level is damaging and dangerous to the world’s environment, ad may threaten the Paris Climate Change agreement.
Crypto mining is seen as the major culprit in this emerging global problem. This is because it requires a ton of energy to solve mathematical puzzles, verify them, add the data to several nodes and finally on to the block.
At the end of the day, crypto mining and its demands on our traditional energy sources is really bad. It never used to be like this in the early days when mining was an interest among enthusiasts, and the price of one bitcoin was less than a dollar.
These days, at its current price, bitcoin mining has become a profitable venture for any and all interested individuals who can afford the expensive mining rigs. There are server farms and mining pools spread across the globe with tens of thousands of mining equipment, gulping electricity and solving these puzzles for the reward of 1 BTC.
While that has slowed down drastically in recent times –owing to bitcoin’s fall in price- chances are it will pick up when bitcoin’s value shoots up again to the $10,000s. When this happens, the question is how long can it be sustained for?
How much electricity would be required to solve these puzzles, particularly if the price of 1 BTC goes up to as high as $250k? This is why an alternative means of energy supply –preferably a renewable one- is best to minimize further negative effects to the environment.
Thankfully, we can start with the following energy solutions:
Solar Power And Other AlternativesThe first of these is that miners can choose is solar power as well as alternative sources of green renewable energy. The good news is that the facilities are available for miners if they’re willing to explore it.
For instance, the state of Texas generates more power from solar energy than what is currently generated from every other energy source in the whole world. This means that you can use as much solar power as you want with very negligible effects on the earth.
A good example of a company that uses renewable energy for bitcoin and ethereum mining is Iceland-based Genesis Mining. This firm gets all its power needs from renewable energy sources. Miners can borrow a leaf from companies like this and set up their own renewable energy based mining infrastructure.
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