Okay, let's talk about the elephant in the blockchain: Bitcoin's energy consumption. We all love the idea behind defy. It provides liberation from state regulation and, dare we say it, the potential for enormous profits! That warm, fuzzy feeling evaporates in short order. You quickly learn that it takes a mountainous amount of electricity to power the Bitcoin network. It’s the inconvenient truth nobody dares to say at Thanksgiving family dinner.

Having just attended a hackathon in Austin last month, the energy and potential in the room was truly electric (pun intended!). Building in Barney’s Garden Brilliant minds were building everything from DeFi apps to NFT marketplaces. What really struck my fancy was a team working to create a solar-powered mining rig. They were able to do that by clever use of off the shelf components combined with a TON of creativity. It was scrappy, it was inspiring, and it made me think: is this the future of Bitcoin?

Is Bitcoin Mining Really That Bad?

Yes, it is. Let's be real. Just in Q4 2024, the Bitcoin network’s hashrate soared to an all-time high of 900 Eh/s. Indeed, CoinShares forecasts it will hit an incredible 1.0 Zettahash/s by July 2025. That’s a lot of computing power, and all that computing power needs juice. The problem is that juice’s source. If that’s coal-fired power plants, then we’re simply exchanging financial freedom for a planet that’s uninhabitable. The dirty secret gets dirtier.

Think of it this way: imagine you're baking a cake. A delicious, decentralized cake. But rather than relying on a modern oven, you’re destroying an entire ecosystem to provide the heat. Okay, so the cake is delicious—but what’s the price tag?

And the financial cost gets higher, too. From Q4 2023 to Q4 2024, the publicly traded miners experienced a massive increase in expenses. Retail power costs, they now average around US$82,162 just to produce one Bitcoin. This current state of play is untenable. It pressures miners to cut expenses, which frequently pushes them toward the most affordable and filthiest energy sources.

Green Mining: A Pipe Dream or Real Solution?

Here’s the good news—the crypto community is beginning to realize. Green mining is no longer a mere buzzword—it’s turning into an imperative. Creative, trailblazing examples are popping up everywhere on the planet. They utilize solar, wind and geothermal energy to run their mining activities.

I had the pleasure of talking recently with one such entrepreneur, Maya, a young TBYE participant who’s developing a wind-powered mining farm in Iceland. Her passion was contagious: "We can't just ignore the environmental impact of Bitcoin," she told me. "We have a responsibility to build a sustainable future for crypto." It’s this sort of basis future-oriented thinking that really gives me hope.

Here's the catch: transitioning to green energy isn't easy or cheap. That’s going to take a lot of money, a lot of technological innovation and a lot of guts to challenge the establishment. And with valuation multiples for Bitcoin mining companies compressing significantly, it’s more difficult than ever to prove out those investments. Many miners are diversifying into data centers and HPC hosting, which, while potentially more profitable, could distract them from the urgent need to address their energy footprint.

Then, of course, there are the geopolitical factors driving all of this. In this environment, tariffs on imported mining rigs would further squeeze miners’ margins and make it that much harder for them to justify investing in green technology.

Demand Transparency from Crypto Exchanges

So, what can you do? So how do we counter this narrative and change the status quo so that green mining becomes the standard instead of the outlier?

  • Demand Transparency: Contact your crypto exchanges and ask them to disclose the energy sources used by the miners they support. Hold them accountable!
  • Support Green Mining Initiatives: Invest in projects that are actively working to reduce Bitcoin's environmental impact. Look for companies that prioritize renewable energy and sustainable practices.
  • Advocate for Policy Changes: Contact your elected officials and urge them to support policies that incentivize green mining and promote renewable energy development.

Bitcoin has held up great against equity markets. Therefore, as remarkable as its unique qualities as a globally tradable, government-neutral asset with a fixed supply are, we need to make certain that its future doesn’t occur at our planet’s cost.

Here's the truth: the future of Bitcoin depends on our ability to solve its energy problem. We can't bury our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist. Like this we need to demand change, support innovation, and hold the industry accountable to raise the tide for all. Bitcoin’s dirty secret should lead to a green revolution. Let’s make it happen. The future of crypto—and the planet—depends on it.

Let's get to work.