- Saylor announced that he together with Musk and other major US Bitcoin miners will create Bitcoin Mining Council
- The consortium will focus on crypto-mining sustainability and transparency
- The timing of this eco-centric crypto-mining consortium could be extremely beneficial to US-based outfits
- It’s too early to tell if this Saylor-Musk-green-crypto-mining initiative is truly intended to benefit the environment
In a message to Twitter followers on Monday, the founder and CEO of MicroStrategy – Michael Saylor – announced that he facilitated a meeting with major US Bitcoin miners AND Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO, Elon Musk. The attendees agreed to create an eco-friendly consortium called the Bitcoin Mining Council to advance environmental sustainability and transparency within the crypto-mining space.
Yesterday I was pleased to host a meeting between @elonmusk & the leading Bitcoin miners in North America. The miners have agreed to form the Bitcoin Mining Council to promote energy usage transparency & accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide. https://t.co/EHgLZ9zvDKBoth CEOs made big news within the crypto-sphere earlier this year when their respective organizations added billions worth of Bitcoin to their separate corporate balance sheets. Musk upped the ante when he then stated that Tesla would also start accepting Bitcoin as payment for his company’s electric vehicles to consumers.— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) May 24, 2021
Since then both companies have lost hundreds of millions in US dollars beginning on May 12th when Musk slammed that digital BTC payment deal for his Tesla e-automobiles in reverse after less than a month – crashing the junked idea into the cryptocurrency market causing massive wreckage to investor portfolios and coin valuations alike.
Musk’s reasoning for the Bitcoin-car-buying ban was due to his concerns around alleged “increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining.” Bitcoin produces new coins using an energy-intensive process called “Proof of Work” that requires a lot of electricity to run massive computer server farms that solve complex encryption puzzles to score new Bitcoins.
In this tweet, Musk then raised concerns around such ecological arrangement, which was heard ‘round the crypto-world.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhPMusk’s surprising, and arguably incongruent, decision against Bitcoin was made despite Tesla’s serious environmental problems with its own projects including:— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
- The fact that only 60% of Tesla’s Lithium-Ion batteries are recyclable, the other 40% of composite materials land in landfills when they no longer hold a charge.
- Thousands of metric tons of soot, methane, and trace gases pumped into the atmosphere from SpaceX’s kerosene-fueled rockets to launch 42,000 satellites for Musk’s Starlink project.
Execs from @ArgoBlockchain , @blockcap, @Core_Scientific, @GalaxyDigitalHQ, @HiveBlockchain, @hut8mining, @MarathonDH & @RiotBlockchain were present & decided to establish an organization to standardize energy reporting, pursue industry ESG goals, & educate+grow the marketplace.Saylor’s tweet referenced the intent to “…pursue industry ESG goals…”, which are environmental, social, and governance (ESG) guidelines established under the U.N. Principles for Responsible Investment, suggesting an effort to preemptively work within established global environmental parameters. It’s a smart proactive move since new industries that effectively self-regulate tend to forestall more restrictive government rules and oversight in the long run.— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) May 24, 2021
Additionally, the timing of this eco-centric crypto-mining consortium could be extremely beneficial to US-based outfits. Late last week, the Chinese State Council announced that it has stepped up its crackdown on cryptocurrencies, forcing several massive Bitcoin mining operations to shutdown activities in China and quickly try to relocate to other countries.
It’s worth noting that the action of the Chinese government seems to have nothing to do with the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining and everything to do with cryptocurrency control. The steps taken by China are a blatant attempt by the leaders of that command economy to eliminate decentralized cryptocurrency – a direct threat and competitor to the state’s newly launched and wholly owned central bank digital currency, the digital yuan.
On the Flipside
- While this Bitcoin Mining Council is good in theory it’s unclear whether it will be good in practice, since as much as 70% of the world’s global supply of Bitcoin is currently mined in China.
- The temporary disruption of Bitcoin mining in China could lower hash rates in the short term, resulting in drops in Bitcoin supply and network security as dislocated miners try to quickly relaunch ops in crypto-conducive countries.
- It’s too early to tell if this Saylor-Musk-green-crypto-mining initiative is truly intended to benefit the environment or simply a scheme to protect their respective billions invested in Bitcoin from eco-focused, government sanctions down the road.
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