It's a controversial topic in the blockchain community that comes up from time to time — just how much impact Bitcoin (BTC) mining has on the environment. Last year, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk brought forth a sharp correction in the cryptocurrency market by tweeting that his namesake car company would abandon plans to accept BTC, citing "rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions." However, a recent report published by CoinShares notes that despite the widespread use of coal, oil, and gas for Bitcoin mining, the network accounts for less than 0.08% of the world's CO2 production. …

The cryptocurrency industry in the United States is about to score a major legal win as the U.S. Treasury Department plans to spare crypto miners, and other "ancillary parties" from tax reporting rules. In a letter to a group of senators on Friday, the U.S. Treasury indicated that it plans to exempt crypto miners, stakers and other market participants from rules that would require crypto brokers to share data on their clients’ transactions with the Internal Revenue Service. “Appreciate the Treasury Department affirming that crypto miners, stakers and those who sell hardware and software for wallets are not subject to …

Large-scale miners are the dominant players in Bitcoin (BTC) mining — we should know because we are one. Having scaled up from a set of mining rigs in my dorm room, our team at Genesis Digital Assets has grown to over twenty industrial-scale mining farms across the globe in just eight years. Every quarter, we continue to scale and build more. You may think that because mining happens digitally, you can plant a farm anywhere in the world. And while you can mine Bitcoin from anywhere, having on-the-ground operations takes more thought than just setting up shop wherever you like. …

The Bitcoin (BTC) network has recorded a new hash rate all-time high of 248.11M TH/s as of Feb. 12, 2022, further securing the decentralized ecosystem through a growing network of global BTC miners. The hash rate correlates to the computing power required by a miner’s computer equipment to confirm a transaction. The recent spike in BTC’s network hash rate ensures further security against attacks by deterring bad actors from confirming fraudulent transactions. As evidenced by the above screenshot, the network hash rate jumped 31.69% — from 188.40 EH/s to 248.11 EH/s — in just one day. Moreover, the Bitcoin network’s …

On Friday, Raja M. Koduri, senior VP of accelerated computing systems and graphics group at Intel, declared their intent to contribute to the development of blockchain technologies. This begins with introducing energy-efficient crypto mining accelerators to be released this year. Previously, Intel had announced it would unveil the next generation of Application-Specific Integrated Circuit mining machines at the next International Solid-State Circuits Conference later this month. The company would also form a new International Solid-State Circuits Conference within Koduri's division. It would be responsible for building custom silicon platforms for optimizing blockchain mining performance and for the design of supercomputers …

All things have their humble beginnings; in 2010, the first Bitcoin (BTC) mining project was created in Prague, Czechia, and was simply called Bitcoin.cz. Soon afterward, founder Mark "Slush" Palatinus decided to move on to other ventures, such as creating the world's first cryptocurrency hard wallet, Trezor. As a result, Braiins, a company doing embedded Linux development and research, took over the mining pool and renamed it accordingly. Fast forward to today, Braiins (Slush Pool) has grown to become one of the biggest Bitcoin mining pools. There are now over 15,000 users in the space, with its total hash rate …

Beijing-based Bitmain has partnered with a United States-based sustainable Bitcoin miner, Merkle Standard, contributing capital investment, expertise and parts. As part of the joint venture, Bitmain will contribute to the development of up to 500 MW of clean digital mining infrastructure at Merkle Standard's hydro-powered facilities in Eastern Washington. Bitmain is a household name in the Bitcoin ecosystem, famed for the Antminer brand, the name behind popular Bitcoin ASIC miners the S9 and S19. Merkle Standard claims to be a carbon-conscious BTC miner, keen to become net carbon negative by year-end. Merkle Standard will install up to 150,000 Bitmain mining …

A lot has changed since I first started covering Bitcoin (BTC) in 2012. A market once relegated to the deepest corners of the internet has now spawned a global revolution that has forced corporations and governments to form an opinion on digital assets. Now, Wall Street is chiming in, with analysts at major banks increasingly convinced that crypto is a maturing asset class with long-term potential. That was the general takeaway of a new report from Wells Fargo’s research division. The report’s bullish undertones are truly remarkable when you consider how big banks treated Bitcoin just a few years ago. …

Norway is a bastion for renewable energy management in Europe. As much as 99% of Norway’s energy derives from hydropower while the grid often enjoys a green energy surplus. But for Norway’s largest data center and Bitcoin (BTC) miner, Kryptovault, using regenerative hydropower to attempt to solve valid Bitcoin blocks was not enough. At the Hønefoss Bitcoin mining operation, which employees have aptly named “the Cathedral” due to its vast and cavernous expanse, the hot air generated by Bitcoin mining rigs is recycled and used to dry out chopped logs. Kjetil Hove Pettersen, CEO of Kryptovault, told Cointelegraph that Norway …

El Salvador, the first nation to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender, has recently announced the relaunch of its wallet app Chivo, which is supposed to patch the previous version’s stability and scalability issues. The update is welcomed news for the Central American country’s crypto experiment, which faced some hurdles and harsh criticism over the last few months. While much of the observers’ attention has been focused on aspects such as retail adoption of crypto and geopolitical implications of Bitcoin’s legal status in El Salvador, the progress of the nation’s mining industry toward achieving President Bukele’s moonshot vision has been …

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has called upon New York City mayor to look into the crypto regulatory clampdowns associated with BitLicense. A New Yorker shared his aghast on Twitter about the flawed crypto policies of the city and how it could force him to leave it. The user lashed out at the Bitlicense policy of the city and claimed he could not open an account with any major United States exchange for his venture capital firm because of it. Bitlicense was introduced in 2015 that governed various aspects related to crypto issuance and exchange. Any virtual currency business operating in …

In May 2021, a Nashville couple known as the Jarretts filed a lawsuit against the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over taxes they had paid on unclaimed and unsold Tezos (XTZ) staking rewards. At the beginning of February, news broke that the lawsuit filed by the Jarretts had come to an end, resulting in the IRS issuing the couple a tax refund for $3,793. Confusion among crypto holders Not long after this news made headlines, confusion among the crypto community piqued. One crypto media publication sent a tweet from its official account on Feb. 2, 2022, saying, “BREAKING: IRS …