Bitcoin mining energy consumption has been one of the most addressed issues in the crypto space. Concerns over its energy consumption and environmental impact had been reasons cited during the China crackdown that saw miners exit out of the region en masse. The once bitcoin mining capital of the world had seen its hashrate crumble to zero following this move.
Automotive manufacturer Tesla had also cited the same reasons when it had removed BTC payments option for its electric vehicles after implementing barely two months earlier. According to CEO Elon Musk, the EV manufacturer planned on implementing BTC payments again but the catch was that bitcoin mining would have to reach at least 50% clean energy.
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Bitcoin Mining Crosses 57% Renewable Energy
The Bitcoin Mining Council which had been formed in June has been dedicated to tracking and reporting mining activities in the space. One of those has been the renewable energy usage in mining. The council which is made up of a network of bitcoin miners first reported in Q2 of 2021 that bitcoin mining activities had surpassed 50% renewable energy.
In October, the council had once again released a report addressing the energy consumption of mining activities. The Bitcoin Mining Council reported that renewable energy usage had gone up in Q3, touching at 57.7% renewable energy.
These numbers have evidently surpassed the threshold that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had set back in June as a prerequisite for resuming BTC payments.
This is inaccurate. Tesla only sold ~10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving market.
When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 13, 2021
BTC crashes to $55K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Calls For Tesla To Resume BTC Payments
Taking to Twitter, BTC supporters had called on Elon Musk to review his statement regarding BTC transactions for Tesla vehicles. Data from the Bitcoin Mining Council’s report had been quoted by others to show that mining activities are now being powered by more than 50% clean energy.
Confirmed.
Your move @ElonMusk 🤔 pic.twitter.com/1c0TtKg1Ow— Bitcoin Archive 🗄🚀🌔 (@BTC_Archive) December 1, 2021
Others, however, have questioned the credibility of the numbers provided by the council. Pointing out information from the press release that said 33% of the global bitcoin network had taken part in the survey. Another user said that there was no way to get reliable data using paper surveys. Rather energy audits would need to be carried out to determine what percentage of energy is clean energy.
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There is no doubt that Tesla resuming BTC transactions would be positive for the market. The first time the automotive manufacturer had implemented crypto payments had sent the price of BTC surging.
Elon Musk – or Tesla, is yet to address the issue of reinstating BTC payments despite the two reports from the Bitcoin Mining Council showing that mining has now crossed 50% clean energy.
Featured image from Ledger Insights, chart from TradingView.com
