In the latest Cointelegraph Crypto Duel, founder of Digiconomist Alex de Vries and CEO and founder of Blockchain for Climate Joseph Pallant debated the intensity of Bitcoin’s footprint and possible paths forward to reduce it. As pointed out by de Vries, Bitcoin’s energy consumption has been increasing together with its network. The analyst predicts its carbon footprint could increase tremendously as Bitcoin gets closer to mass adoption. “I fear that this will quickly get completely out of control if adoption increases a lot more”, he said. According to de Vries, as long as Bitcoin functions with a proof-of-work system, bringing …

Graphics card giant Nvidia is quietly reintroducing a hash rate limiter on its RTX 3060 series graphics cards in an effort to disincentivize cryptocurrency miners. On Thursday, the company issued the GeForce 466.27 driver that reintroduces RTX 3060 crypto mining limiter. According to sources reported by computer news site VideoCardz, Nvidia will release the new “Lite Hash Rate” models in mid-May, which will be almost identical to previous versions of the same cards. The gaming giant had originally limited the hash on the previous models, reducing mining performance by 50%. Matt Wuebbling, head of global GeForce marketing at Nvidia, said …

Beijing authorities are reportedly conducting inspections of crypto mining data centers to better understand their impact on energy consumption, Reuters reported on Thursday. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology on Tuesday sent an emergency notice to the city’s data center operators asking them to report whether they are involved in mining Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. The notice required data centers to report the amount of power consumed by crypto mining, the report notes. A bureau official said that notice recipients include China’s top-three telecom operators. He noted that he was unaware of the reason behind the …

Amid growing concerns over the energy sector in Kyrgyzstan, a former government official has argued that cryptocurrency mining is a major factor driving the energy crisis. Daniyar Akmatov, former director of the state investment protection organization, the Investment Promotion and Protection Agency, addressed the challenges in Kyrgyzstan’s energy sector at a roundtable in Bishkek, local news agency Tazabek reported on Wednesday. The former official said that crypto mining is causing issues for the country’s energy sector, alongside other factors like the devaluation of the Kyrgyz som and poor promotion of energy investment. “Consumption of electricity due to cryptocurrency mining has …

Crypto data aggregator CoinMetrics has compiled a list of 100 insights into the recent performance of the digital asset markets — and the figures add up to a very bullish picture for the ecosystem. Released to celebrate the 100th issue of its “State of the Network” report, the list notes that a $100 investment made into Dogecoin (DOGE) 100 days ago would be worth $2,742 today — outperforming the same $100 investment in Bitcoin (BTC) (which would be valued at $135 today), Ether (ETH) ($186), and Uniswap (UNI) ($401). The report states that Bitcoin has seen $14.5 billion worth of …

Tesla — a top 10 company in the Fortune 100 that is run by one of the world’s wealthiest people, Elon Musk — transferred $1.5 billion of its treasury cash into Bitcoin (BTC) in early February. Musk’s Bitcoin purchase startled traditional investors, who now had to understand how their investment in Tesla would relate to Bitcoin. Currently, much of Tesla’s revenue comes from selling surplus renewable energy credits, or RECs, which will dry up in the next several years as competing automakers produce their own zero-emissions vehicles and build up RECs with states that require them. In Tesla’s filing with …

Legislators in the United Kingdom have asked for greater regulatory powers to combat the rise of financial “greenwashing” — a deceptive practice where a company overstates or fabricates the extent of its green energy usage. A report by the House of Commons cross-party Treasury Committee urges the U.K. government to sharpen its definition of environmentally conscious investments and to consult on the prospect of attaching “green labels” to financial products. The report notes that “green” claims attached to financial investments are often exaggerated, and can fail to align with customer expectations: “It is clear that in some cases the labels …

Some of Bitcoin’s most prominent backers have sought to make the case for Bitcoin’s environmental efficiency, with a collaborative paper from researchers at financial services firm Square and investment manager Ark Invest asserting that Bitcoin mining can drive increased efficiency in renewable energy production. The paper, authored by “The Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative,” or BCEI, seeks to counter the claim that “the computation required to secure Bitcoin [...] is environmentally damaging and ruining the planet,” arguing that Bitcoin mining incentivizes the generation of electricity “from renewable carbon-free sources.” The paper has received support from top crypto luminaries including Square’s Jack …

The big news this week happened on April 16th, when a major power outage in Xinjiang wreaked havoc on the BTC hash rate. According to local sources, the hash rates on Ant Mine Pool fell by 21.93%, BTC.com by 18.5%, Binance Mine Pool by 22%, and Huobi Mine Pool by 25.5%. Reports from Cointelegraph linked it with safety inspections resulting from a mine accident in the western-most province. Western China has a strong presence in the mining space due to cheap electricity and equally affordable real estate. Despite miners originally stating the impact would only last 1 to 2 days, …

It’s as reliable as the changing of the seasons: Another year, another Earth Day and another misguided missive about the outrageous energy consumption of the cryptocurrency space. Last week, the New York Times published a piece that sought to remind readers of the “astonishing environmental costs” of cryptocurrency mining. It was a prime example of what’s quickly becoming an editorial subgenre, including references to dubious research — claiming that Bitcoin (BTC) mining alone will push global warming above Paris Agreement levels — and a baffling misspelling of Ethereum. For those who believe in the transformative power and potential of blockchain, …

Smart contract platform Algorand plans to achieve a carbon-negative network by implementing a “sustainability oracle” in partnership with ClimateTrade in a move that could make blockchain adoption more environmentally friendly. The partnership, which was announced Thursday, enables Algorand to notarize its on-chain carbon footprint and then lock the equivalent amount of carbon credits into a so-called green treasury. Silvio Micali, Algorand’s founder, said the company is focusing on sustainability at a time of growing adoption for the smart-contract protocol. “As this period of hyper growth continues, we find it crucial to operate at a carbon-negative level. Indeed sustainable growth is …

Crypto mining company Blockcap, which recently announced it would be setting up new offices in Austin, said Texas could become an alluring region for the industry. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Blockcap founder and executive chair Darin Feinstein said the firm had chosen Texas for its headquarters based on the potential hiring pool as well as the regulatory environment. According to Feinstein, blockchain companies operating in the United States — and Texas in particular — may face fewer geopolitical risks than those in China and other countries. "Texas certainly is a place that we see protecting the privacy elements …