In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), where I exhibited my art, took place in Glasgow, Scotland and ended with the adoption of the Glasgow Climate Pact, bringing nearly 200 countries closer to keeping global temperature rise by 2100 under 1.5 degrees Celsius. The conference remained more focused on emission reductions than on developed countries’ provisions of support to developing countries, …

There’s no denying that over the past couple of years, the narrative that Bitcoin (BTC) consumes too much power has continued to garner an increasing amount of mainstream traction. However, what sometimes gets ignored is that in recent months, an increasing number of Bitcoin miners have moved toward the use of power sources driven primarily by renewable energy. To expound further on the subject, it should be noted that a number of studies, including one that was released recently by Cambridge University, revealed that more than 75% of all miners operating today make use of renewable sources to power their …

The age of digital transformation has arrived, leading traditional industries to adopt new technologies to accommodate a fully digital future. As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the trillion dollar oil and gas industry has quietly started to leverage blockchain technology for business success. Douglas Heintzman, chief catalyst at the Blockchain Research Institute, told Cointelegraph that the oil and gas sector is particularly ripe for blockchain development due to its uniquely positioned supply chain: “There are many participants in downstream and upstream operations within the oil and gas industry.” He added further: “The industry must now look at …

As the nonfungible tokens craze took off at the start of the year, many climate-conscious artists vocalized their disapproval of Ethereum’s energy consumption. In May, Elon Musk then derailed Bitcoin (BTC), citing the energy consumed by Bitcoin as cause for Tesla to withdraw its plans to accept BTC as payment for its electric cars. Both of these events have provoked a surge of debate from inside and outside the blockchain community. In particular, the arguments tend to focus on two areas: Bitcoin’s energy consumption and its dependency on climate-damaging fossil fuels versus renewables and, secondly, the benefits of one blockchain …

Tom Baumann of the Climate Chain Coalition: Tom is the founder and co-chair of the Climate Chain Coalition, an open global initiative to advance collaboration on blockchain/DLT and digital solutions to enhance climate actions. “In general, digital solutions can be helpful tools to support a low-carbon economy. The World Economic Forum estimates that digital solutions can help achieve 15% of the Paris Agreement goals. These solutions can be used throughout the entire economy, creating smart grids and buildings, smart transportation, integrating with digital services and more. Digital tools could link sustainable production to sustainable consumption in a more efficient, equitable …

Blockchain mining networks are often victims of their success. The two contemporary realities that demarcate the mining landscape and cause blockchains to fall short of what they promise are 1) the ongoing technological arms race driven by inherent competitive greed; and 2) the rising energy costs associated with proof-of-work (PoW) mining. Blockchains built on the PoW consensus have become highly unequal and increasingly centralized in terms of their hash rate. This concentration of mining power in fewer and fewer hands is an attack on the fundamental requirement for distribution and decentralization that blockchains possess. In addition, the motivation to ramp …

Bitcoin (BTC) may be the last thing one might consider when thinking about ways to ensure a clean-energy future. This has especially become the case following a tweet sent by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk back in May, in which he stated that Tesla would stop accepting BTC payments due to the increasing usage of fossil fuels for mining. Yet raising awareness around the high energy costs typically associated with Bitcoin mining didn’t negatively impact the crypto ecosystem — in fact, it did just the opposite. Following Musk’s tweet, a number of cryptocurrency mining companies came out of the woodwork to …

The cryptocurrency market got off to a slow start on Aug. 19 after stimulus tapering talks from the U.S. Federal Reserve put pressure on global financial markets, but momentum within the crypto market picked up in the afternoon session as Bitcoin (BTC) bulls finally managed to break above the $46,000 level. While most altcoins were slow to warm up on Thursday, several altcoins led the way with gains in excess of 20% due to major protocol upgrades and exchange listings. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were Voyager Token (VGX), …

In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. Since 2013, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, has been discussing the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) risks of large multinational enterprises (MNEs) — risks arising from the digitalization of the global economy. BEPS 2.0 reports came out in 2018 and 2019, aiming to ensure a fairer distribution of the rights to tax the profits of large MNEs, …

Over the years, Bitcoin has been able to overcome naysayers by frequently reinventing its narrative. Because Bitcoin (BTC) is multifaceted, it is able to quickly change to confront new criticism. We have seen this over the years. For example, Bitcoin used to be frequently assailed by the media for its volatility — many articles pushed the notion that Bitcoin was too volatile to ever succeed as a currency. We do not hear too much about Bitcoin’s volatility today, in part because observers have been accustomed to its frequent price swings, but mostly because “Bitcoiners” have coalesced around the notion of …

In a little more than 40,000 days — or over a hundred years — we have gone from the first terrestrial flight to the first flight on another planet. Within that short time, the amount of fuel burned and, unfortunately, even lives lost have been immense. In exchange, flight has completely transformed everything from commerce to warfare and has led to the birth of completely new industries. As aviation progressed, fuel efficiency improved and mortality rates also dropped immensely. In the digital realm, blockchain technology could be equally as transformative, with applications in everything from trade, exchange, cooperation, identity, and …

While writing the world's most famous white paper, Satoshi Nakamoto defined the Bitcoin (BTC) mining process. It was established that the minting of new coins would take place through proof-of-work. To carry out this verification and to be able to mine the cryptocurrency, computers would need to solve complex mathematical calculations. In the beginning, there were not many miners. However, that changed before the first Bitcoin bull run. Mining competition skyrocketed, causing a sharp increase in the cost of machines capable of competing. Even more importantly, energy demand exploded with the new machines — which needed energy mainly for processing …