Bitcoin network’s proof-of-work mining consensus has been a topic of evironmental, social and governance (ESG) debates for a long time and a new study may only add to the growing controversy around BTC's carbon footprint. A new research report titled “Revisiting Bitcoin’s carbon footprint” published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Joules has highlighted that the Chinese crypto mining ban might not have contributed to the reduction in the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin network as propagated by many Bitcoiners, on the contrary, it has increased by 17%. China was the primary hub for Bitcoin miners before May 2021 and accounted …

Russian Bitcoin (BTC) miners are reportedly running as usual despite the government’s invasion of Ukraine this week. According to estimates from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption index, miners in Russia accounted for around 11.2% of the global BTC hash rate as of August 2021. With sanctions on the Russian government coming from the U.S. and allied NATO nations, it is unclear how the local BTC sector and the broader market will be impacted. While some crypto mining firms such as Ethereum focused Flexpool have halted their services in Russia in response to the invasion, BTC miners Compass Mining confirmed to …

Crypto mining operations based in the United States are committed to increasing their hash power with more hardware despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) three-month downturn. The Marathon Digital Holdings and GEM Mining companies in the U.S. told Cointelegraph this week that they each expect the size of their respective operations to grow through 2022 by at least doubling the number of machines at their facilities. Marathon Digital’s VP of corporate communications Charlie Schumacher told Cointelegraph in an interview that it is moving forward with plans to deploy 199,000 new machines throughout 2022 to secure what is “arguably the future of the global …

Blockchain company Bitfury announced the launch of a new crypto-mining data center in Ontario, Canada. The new crypto mining center adds to the list of existing Canadian sites currently operating in Drumheller, Alberta and Medicine Hat. Bitfury partnered with Hut 8 Mining, a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Bitcoin (BTC) mining company, to set up mining operations across North America. The new crypto mining facility in Ontario is expected to operate at 16 megawatts (MW) by the end of this month. According to the announcement, Bitfury has plans to add 12MW capacity in the coming months, which will bring up the total …

The Kazakh Ministry of Energy announced that it has discovered and terminated 13 cryptocurrency mining operations. The government executed the shutdown as part of its efforts to regulate the Bitcoin (BTC) mining sector, which has grown increasingly popular in recent years. As per the official statement, the miners were using a lot of energy, with a total power consumption of 202 megawatts. According to the Kazakhstan government, efforts to identify and disconnect mining farms from the electrical networks will continue. Following the discovery of illicit mining operations, authorized bodies will take operational and investigatory actions. As the planet's second-largest Bitcoin …

Kazakhstan, one of the world’s top Bitcoin (BTC) mining locations, is likely to lose its BTC hash rate share leadership in the next hash rate distribution update, according to industry experts. According to Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), Kazakhstan was housing over 18% of the world’s BTC hash rate as of August 2021, following only the United States. Kazakhstan’s BTC mining power increase was partly driven by the massive Chinese miners’ exodus triggered by China’s cryptocurrency crackdown. Prior to falling to zero as of August 2021, China’s BTC hash rate power accounted for more than 75% back in 2019. …

At first glance, the pint-sized Republic of Georgia is an unlikely suspect for Bitcoin (BTC) mining activity. An underdog for mining, the country boasts abundant hydropower while ranked seventh worldwide for the World Bank's ease of doing business index –ahead of the United Kingdom and Germany. Nestled on the Black Sea at the intersection of Europe and Asia, Georgia hosts Bitfury’s industrial mining operations as well as smaller, solo miners that tap into enormous amounts of hydroelectric power. The country packs a punch for Bitcoin mining. While the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption index puts Georgia’s hash rate at 0.18%, a …

Computer chip manufacturing giant Intel Corporation shared details of a new mining chip that will be coupled with a high-performance 3,600 Watt miner with the ultimate goal of improving Bitcoin (BTC) mining efficiency. Intel revealed its second-generation BTC mining setup during the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2022, a conference dedicated to the electronics and chip manufacturing industry. According to the company, Bonanza mine (BMZ2) is an ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC that can deliver 40 Terahashes per second (40 TH/s) performance. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Intel’s patent related to “high-performance Bitcoin Mining” dates back to November 2018, which …

One of the main themes among the crypto community in 2021 was China’s aggressive policy toward mining, which led to a complete ban on such activities in September. While mining as a type of financial activity has not gone away and is unlikely to disappear, Chinese cryptocurrency miners had to look for a new place to set up shop. Many of them moved to the United States — the world’s new mining mecca — while some left to Scandinavia and others to nearby Kazakhstan, with its cheap electricity. Mining activities can’t stay under the radar forever, and governments around the …

The Bitcoin network has hit yet another all-time high in mining difficulty after a steady climb since last July’s lows. On-chain analysis tool CoinWarz indicated on Feb. 18 that mining difficulty reached a new high of 27.97 trillion hashes (T). This is now the second time in three weeks that Bitcoin (BTC) has hit a new ATH in terms of difficulty. On Jan. 23, difficulty reached 26.7 T when hash rates were at 190.71 EH/s (exahashes per second). Higher difficulty means there is more competition among miners to confirm a block and extract a block reward. As a result, miners …

Bitcoin (BTC) mining generates a lot of “waste” heat. As energy prices spiral out of control in Europe, miners have come up with creative ways of recycling the heat generated by solving valid Bitcoin blocks. Whereas in Norway, a miner is drying wood from the local timber mill, across the North Sea in the Netherlands, a miner is heating greenhouses to grow produce and bloom “Bitcoin flowers.” In a win-win partnership between a Dutch farmer and a Bitcoin miner, Bitcoin Bloem mines Bitcoin and bud flowers in greenhouses in the province of North Braband, southeast of Rotterdam. It works like …

International oil and gas giant ConocoPhilips is dipping its toes into Bitcoin (BTC) mining as a way to eliminate the wasteful practice of flaring. According to a report from CNBC, the company is currently operating a pilot scheme in the oil-rich region of Bakken, North Dakota. Instead of burning excess gas, a byproduct of oil-drilling known as flaring, the company is selling it to a third party Bitcoin miner to be used as fuel. Speaking on the environmental impacts of “routine flaring”, a representative from the company stated that the decision to move into Bitcoin mining reflected the company’s overarching …