The Myth of Renewable Bitcoin

Bitcoin has a reputation for being environmentally unfriendly. Mostly this is, <a href="https://medium.com/@joshgans/why-economists-dont-like-bitcoin-c0f0bcba17d9" rel="noopener">as I argued previously</a>, because (a) it uses lots of electricity and (b) that people don’t think this is a good use for that electricity. But, recently, the focus has been on the type of electricity. For instance, Elon Musk, who previously embraced Bitcoin as a payment option for Tesla, backed away given the ‘brand confusion’ associated with promoting environmental friendliness when Bitcoin was not. Musk’s view is that it is not the electricity per se but the type of electricity that is at issue. At a conference in 2021, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/21/elon-musk-says-tesla-will-likely-start-accepting-bitcoin-again.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">he remarked</a>: <blockquote> It looks like bitcoin is shifting a lot more toward renewables and a bunch of the heavy-duty coal plants that were being used…have been shut down, especially in China … I want to do a little more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50% and that there is a trend toward increasing that number. If so, Tesla will most likely resume accepting bitcoin. </blockquote> In other words, if Bitcoin runs on renewables (solar, wind, geothermal) it will be back in Tesla’s good books. The intention is to make Bitcoin non-carbon polluting. But will such a shift actually do that? Or will it just look like it is doing that? There’s a difference. <a href="https://joshgans.medium.com/bitcoin-and-renewables-f4d0fa763674">Click Here</a>