Cryptocurrency mining company Argo Blockchain announced Tuesday that it has reached an important milestone in its climate strategy, sending a strong signal that environmental sustainability remains one of its primary focuses. The company claimed that its crypto operations have become “climate positive” for Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions. According to Carbon Trust, a global advocacy group for environmental sustainability, Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from a company’s owned or controlled sources; Scope 2 covers indirect emissions through the purchase of electricity; and Scope 3 includes all other indirect forms of emission that occur in a company’s …

As the debate surrounding the impact of major blockchains on the environment continues, an energy-efficient blockchain is releasing an eco-friendly NFT collection designed to reduce carbon emissions. The Worldwide Asset eXchange says Carbon Offset vIRL NFTs will make their debut in August 2021. For every dollar that is “composted,” the National Forest Foundation is going to plant one tree sapling, each of which will offset an average of one tonne of CO2 over their lifetime. WAX co-founder William Quigley said: “WAX is officially setting higher standards for responsibility across the blockchain. We’ve been working tirelessly to ensure our blockchain is …

The United Nations has selected blockchain platform Unique Network to run a nonfungible token (NFT) initiative in the effort to inspire others to take action against climate change. According to a Tuesday announcement, Unique will be the lead technology partner for a program from the UN’s Human Settlement Programme and International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges, which will mint young artists’ work as NFTs. The program, called Digital Art for Climate Action Empowerment, or DigitalArt4Climate, encourages creators to showcase artwork inspiring people to work toward finding better solutions for the environment. “The United Nations has …

Amid the looming Ethereum London hard fork, Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead predicted that the upcoming upgrade would likely help Ether (ETH) outpace Bitcoin (BTC) as the largest cryptocurrency. As a newer cryptocurrency, Ether has more potential than Bitcoin, Morehead said at the Reuters Global Markets Forum on Monday, noting that the latest Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 upgrade will help the digital token to trade more like a fixed asset. One of five EIPs in the Ethereum London upgrade, EIP-1559 is an anticipated update to Ethereum’s existing fee structure, introducing a minimum payment for sending Ethereum transactions and move …

Global investment firm SkyBridge Capital has partnered with carbon credit provider Moss to purchase tokens representing 38,436 tons of carbon offsets. SkyBridge announced the move on Monday, with founder Anthony Scaramucci forecasting that the Bitcoin (BTC) mining industry “will be fully renewable by the end of the decade.” In the meantime, Scaramucci believes carbon offsets offer an “effective” means for the sector to improve its ecological footprint: “In the interim, carbon offsets represent an effective way to green the Bitcoin network and facilitate adoption by ESG-minded investors.” SkyBridge is an institutional asset manager that provides exposure to BTC via fund …

After having been hailed as a champion of sorts by many within the global digital asset market, Tesla CEO Elon Musk dropped a bombshell on the crypto community earlier in May, backtracking the company’s decision to start accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as a means of payment for various automotive sales. The reason cited was that Bitcoin mining processes were too resource-intensive and unsustainable in the long run. As expected, almost overnight Musk became a heel, especially among Bitcoin maximalists who began calling him a sell-out and a market manipulator. Regardless of the name-calling, the episode did seem to shine a major …

According to publicly available data from the University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and the International Energy Agency, or IEA, bitcoin (BTC) carbon emission intensity may have already peaked. The environmental impact of bitcoin's electricity usage is a favorite talking point of its critics and journalists on the crypto beat. But taking in the available data, Hass McCook, a retired chartered professional engineer, reckons bitcoin's carbon emissions "have already peaked a few months ago." McCook unpacked the data and defended that conclusion in a guest post on Bitcoin Magazine's website Friday: "From the above, it would appear that Bitcoin’s …

Two payments firms have partnered to roll out crypto payments across 50,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Europe. The partnership is between Irish e-commerce and mobile payment solutions firm HIPS Payment Group Ltd and Vourity, a Swedish firm that specializes in unattended payment facilities such as EV charging stations. The integration of crypto payments with charging stations will occur over the next three years starting from November 2021. The firms haven’t revealed which cryptocurrencies will be supported yet, but Vourity has dropped a pretty strong hint that Ethereum is likely to be among the first after it released an …

Enjin, a blockchain gaming and nonfungible token platform, has stepped up to decarbonize its footprint by joining the Crypto Climate Accord, a move that adds further credibility to the industry’s growing environmental mandate. The Crypto Climate Accord is backed by 20 firms from the blockchain, fin-tech and greentech industries. Inspired by the 195-signatory Paris Climate Agreement, the Accord was established in April to address the "large and growing energy consumption of cryptocurrency and blockchain, and the climate impact of their energy use.” Enjin claims that its JumpNet blockchain has already achieved carbon-negative status nine years ahead of schedule. In March, …

Gemini, a major cryptocurrency exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is responding to Bitcoin’s (BTC) environmental issue by purchasing carbon credits. On Thursday, the company announced its long-term initiative to incorporate climate-conscious measures into its business, launching a collaboration with Climate Vault, a nonprofit founded at the University of Chicago. Through the initiative, Gemini plans to purchase carbon credits for nearly 350,000 metric tons of carbon to offset non-renewable energy consumed by Bitcoin miners and help decarbonize Bitcoin on the Bitcoin network. According to the announcement, the partnership will have Gemini purchase carbon permits directly from government-related cap-and-trade markets …

The Pennsylvania-based Stronghold Digital Mining has announced the completion of two private equity securities raises worth $105 million. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the firm’s first power generation facility, the Scrubgrass Generation Plant in Venango County, converts waste coal into energy on a scale equivalent to “a large-scale hydropower plant” that is then used to mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The waste coal recycled by Stronghold was produced by coal mining operations in the 19th and 20th century. Stronghold's power generation processes allow it to rehabilitate large areas of land that were devastated as a result by waste …

Amid ongoing concerns over Bitcoin’s carbon footprint, the United Nations has said that cryptocurrency’s underlying technology has massive potential for fixing global issues such as climate change. The U.N. will keep exploring the uses of blockchain technology as a way to fight the climate crisis and help reach a more sustainable global economy, according to an article published on the official U.N. website on Sunday. U.N. experts are confident that “cryptocurrencies and the technology that powers them can play an important role in sustainable development, and actually improving our stewardship of the environment.” Specifically, the article points out a number …