TL; DR
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There’s a company called Nodal Power that just raised a nice $13 million in funding to: convert methane into electricity, and use that electricity to mine BTC.
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Methane breaks down faster than CO2, which means that it has largely disappeared from the atmosphere after ten years.
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The best way to reduce global warming when mining BTC is to power the Bitcoin network with clean, renewable energy. That is much easier said than done! But it will happen eventually (in the long run it’s most cost effective).
Full story
Up-bup-bup!
Remove your fingers from the keyboard.
Press pause on your angry response for a moment.
That headline needs some context to really make sense.
There’s a company called Nodal Power that just pulled in a cool $13 million in funding for (grab this!):
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Collect methane gas produced by landfills
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Convert the methane into electricity
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Sell some of it to energy companies
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Use the rest to mine bitcoin
Here’s the fun part about it:
This is not just a concept, it’s already happening. Nodal Power didn’t make 13 million from it to create the system, but to expand It.
And apparently, burning excess methane to produce power in a generator actually results in lower CO2 emissions than if it were simply burned in the open air.
In addition, methane is 25 times more effective at retaining heat than carbon dioxide. This process thus chooses the lesser of the two ‘warming evils’.
Here’s what’s not so cool about this:
Methane breaks down faster than CO2, which means that it has largely disappeared from the atmosphere after ten years.
But carbon dioxide has the resources to contribute to global warming for hundreds of years.
…meaning that this solution actually trades short-term gains for longer-term pain.
So what’s the solution: how can we have our Bitcoin cake and eat it too?
Supply the Bitcoin network with clean renewable energy.
That is much easier said than done! But it will happen eventually (in the long run it’s most cost effective).
In the meantime, the farts in the dump will have to do.