A USA based bitcoin miner has announced they produce almost no carbon when mining bitcoin, DGHI said in a statement.

“We are extremely proud to report that over 90% of the energy consumed by Digihost is from sources producing zero carbon emissions, and that over 50% is from renewable sources of energy, making Digihost one of the cleanest green Bitcoin mining operations in the United States,” Michel Amar, the CEO of Digihost Technology (DGHI) said before adding:

“As a Company, we have always been cognizant of the potential impact Bitcoin mining could have on the environment and therefore have planned our growth and expansion to be environmentally conscious, in our pursuit of opportunities that maximize value for our shareholders.”

Another miner, Marathon, said they are 70% carbon neutral and the company will work towards increasing it further.

For DGHI 42.68% of the energy comes from hydro power, 41.19% comes from nuclear, 6.45% from wind and 1.15% from other renewables.

Just 7% of their power comes from gas, and only 0.23% from coal with even less for oil at a minuscule 0.02%.

So making this one of the greenest bitcoin miner with most bitcoin datacenters utilizing hydro power in particular.

Unlike other datacenters, like those of Google or Apple, bitcoin miners have a huge incentive to get cheap and renewable energy as the mining process is very competitive.

Thus that DGHI is almost fully carbon neutral is not quite surprising as for an industry like bitcoin it largely makes business sense.

After a plunge earlier this month, bitcoin’s hashrate has began recovering to 157 exahashes per second from 124.

The plunge was reportedly due to the authorities in Inner Mongolia within China cutting off miners.

Chinese authorities thereafter announced an intent to crackdown on bitcoin mining, with BTC.Top, a mining pool that has about 1.7% of the hashrate, stating they are suspending their China business due to regulatory risks.

Jiang Zhuoer, the founder of BTC.Top, said “Chinese hashpower will flow abroad just like the Exchanges did in 2017, China will play a less significant role in the global hashpower distribution.

During the process, there will not be obvious changes in the entire Bitcoin network, except that European and North American mining pools will rank higher than the Chinese pools.”

Marathon is just one miner contributing to this shift, stating they have entered “into a binding letter of intent with Compute North to host approximately 73,000 of Marathon’s previously purchased Bitcoin miners as part of a new 300-megawatt data center located in Texas.”

A number of stock traded miners intend to gain significant network share, powered by a rise in their share prices which has allowed them to raise hundreds of millions through stock shares.

As this new hash comes on it may well replace the Chinese one, which it was in the process of doing in any event but China’s Communist Party (CCP) may now be accelerating the trend.

Hence the hashrate has recovered as western miners are now finding cheaper energy with Marathon stating the new datacenter will pay $0.0453 per kWh.

That’s cheaper than in China even during good times when energy costs were about five cent. Now they may be asked to pay more with big mining businesses in China in talks to move abroad.

Bitmain, the biggest asics manufacturer, began shifting some of their operations to America in late 2017.

A lot of the talent therefore may leave China too, which should be a big boost to the semiconductors business in America and Europe.

Chinese miners have been in a state of uncertainty since 2017 when very unexpectedly crypto exchanges were closed.

The harshness of that move put them on alert to make contingency plans as CCP could thereafter move in at any point.

Some moved to Iran and the nearby areas, some to remote areas in USA and in Europe, with an exodus now potentially on the cards as that east and west collaboration is perhaps revived, but this time in the west.

• Elon Musk met with Michael Saylor and North American Bitcoin miners over BTC environmental concerns.
• The miners have decided to establish the Bitcoin Mining Council to address BTC sustainability issues.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that he recently met with executives of Bitcoin mining companies in North America over BTC environmental concerns. While announcing the meeting with North American Bitcoin miners on the 24th of May, Musk added that the miners are now “committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so.” The CEO seemed pleased with the latest development surrounding Bitcoin mining. He noted in the tweet that the miner’s move is “potentially promising.”

Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2021

The Bitcoin Mining Council

Shortly after the Tesla CEO’s tweet, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor said he hosted the meeting between Musk and the top Bitcoin miners in North America. Saylor further revealed the outcome of the meeting. He said:

The miners have agreed to form the Bitcoin Mining Council to promote energy usage transparency & accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide.

Additionally, Saylor highlighted the executives that were present at the meeting. Some of them are Argo Blockchain, Blockcap, Core Scientific, Galaxy Digital, and Hive Blockchain Technologies. Others include Hut 8 Mining, Marathon Digital Holdings, and Riot Blockchain.

Confirming its presence at the meeting, Hut 8 Mining said that its CEO, Jamie Leverton, attended the meeting with Musk, Saylor, and other executives on Bitcoin mining companies. According to the company, the gathering has decided to form an organization to “standardize energy reporting.” Hut 8 Mining also added that the organization would educate the market that sustainable mining is a priority and equally possible.

The CEO of Argo Blockchain, Peter Wall, stated his pleasure on the meeting with Saylor, Musk and other miners. He remarked:

As a founding member of the Bitcoin Mining Council, Argo will push hard for sustainable mining and more transparency. This is the way.

Merrick Okamoto of Marathon Digital Holdings also said that the company would do its part to contribute to Bitcoin’s sustainable mining and transparency.

Musk took a U-turn from being an ardent supporter of Bitcoin when he slammed the top coin over energy usage. At the time, the CEO also said that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin payments as earlier announced. The announcement led to an immediate and sharp decline in the value of Bitcoin. Since then, the cryptocurrency is yet to recover from the fall.

BTC recovers weekend losses

Bitcoin recorded gains after Musk announced the meeting with North American Bitcoin miners. BTC shot up from $37,940 to $39,405. At the time of writing, our data showed that Bitcoin had added 5.59 percent in the last 24 hours. It currently trades at $38,300.

According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), Bitcoin mining consumes about 110 Terawatt Hours annually. This energy consumption represents around 0.55 percent of global electricity production. The researchers also noted that Bitcoin’s energy usage is more than the energy consumption of some countries like Argentina, Malaysia, and Sweden. CBECI added that the Bitcoin mining process could increase to 128 Terawatt Hours in 2021.

At press time, there is no announcement yet stating the details of the miners’ plans to address Bitcoin environmental issues.