proof-of-work
US lawmakers urge EPA to consider the potential benefits of crypto mining
A group of 14 United States senators and House representatives have signed a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency extolling what they believe are the benefits of crypto mining. In a Thursday letter, many U.S. lawmakers including pro-Bitcoin Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Tom Emmer addressed EPA administrator Michael Regan, requesting the government agency analyze the potential impact of crypto mining in an effort to balance innovation with environmental concerns. The group of 14 senators and representatives claimed mining could have a “substantial stabilizing effect on energy grids” and cited examples of mining operations using flared gas and renewable energy sources. “Digital assets, and their related mining activities, are essential to the economic future of the Unite...
What are Bitcoin improvement proposals (BIPs), and how do they work?
Gathering significant consensus within the community is the first step of the process. Sometimes, even the most valuable proposals can take years before they are approved or rejected because the community can’t find an agreement. Once a BIP is submitted as a draft to the BIP GitHub, the proposal gets reviewed and worked on transparently so that everyone can view its progress and consequent testing outcomes. As Bitcoin blockchain is based on code, protocol changes will have to be reflected in the code, and miners will have to add a reference to their hashed block to signal that they accept or reject their implementation. Because of the severe implications some changes might inflict on miners, a modification in the code requires acceptance by a vast majority of around 95% unless a ...
Bitcoin and banking’s differing energy narratives are a matter of perspective
The Carbon Bankroll Report was released on May 17 as a collaboration among the Climate Safe Lending Network, The Outdoor Policy Outfit and Bank FWD. The collaboration made it possible to calculate the emissions generated due to a company’s cash and investments, such as cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. The report revealed that for several large companies, such as Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Salesforce, the cash and investments are their largest source of emissions. The energy consumption of the flagship proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain network, Bitcoin, has been a matter of debate in which the network and its participants, especially miners, are criticized for contributing to an ecosystem that might be worsening climate change. However, recent findings have also brought the...
Bitcoin’s real energy use questioned as Ethereum founder criticizes BTC
The ever-raging debate around Bitcoin’s energy consumption has been re-ignited, with founding member of Ethereum Anthony Donofrio claiming that Bitcoin is using “way too much” energy. According to figures from Digiconomist, Bitcoin (BTC) currently uses 0.82% of the world’s power while Ethereum (ETH) uses 0.34%. Ethereum researcher Justin Drake posted the figures to his 56,000 followers that Donofrio retweeted, stating: If bitcoin is really using nearly 1% of the energy on earth that is way too much for a pet rock. https://t.co/CDL32jk5FF — Texture, PhD (@iamtexture) June 9, 2022 Ethereum proponents are attempting to take shots at Bitcoin while simultaneously promoting Ethereum’s upcoming transition to proof-of-stake, Drake added another tweet moments later that read: “Ethereum post-m...
Bitfinex Bitcoin longs hit a record-high, but does that mean BTC has bottomed?
Bitcoin (BTC) has been unable to close above $32,000 for the past 28 days, frustrating bulls and pushing the Fear and Greed index to bearish levels below 10. Even with June 6’s small boost, the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock market index is down 24% year-to-date. Investors who keep a close eye on regulatory development were possibly scared after New York state made clear its intention to regulate the crypto industry, including Bitcoin mining. On June 2, New York Attorney General Attorney Letitia James issued an investor alert against “risky cryptocurrency investments,” citing the assets’ volatility. According to Cointelegraph, the attorney general is convinced that crypto investments create “more pain than gain” for investors. The New York State Senate approved a pro...
OpenEthereum support ends with the Merge fast approaching
One of the most popular Ethereum (ETH) clients, OpenEthereum has ended support for its software in preparation for the upcoming Ethereum Merge. OpenEthereum creates “clients” or software used to interact with the Ethereum network allowing anyone to create an Ethereum node to mine the cryptocurrency which is currently using a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism. In a Twitter thread the OpenEthereum team explained that with the Merge approaching and the legacy codebase becoming “increasingly difficult to manage” due to its age that it was the right time to end support. OpenEthereum support has officially ended. The repo is now archived, and all maintenance and updates have stopped. Why? And what next? Read the — OpenEthereum is Deprecated (@OpenEthereumOrg) May 24, 2022 The project was f...
Ethereum devs tip The Merge will occur in August ‘if everything goes to plan’
Ethereum’s long-awaited migration to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which has been pushed back time and time again, looks set to occur sometime in August. Hopefully. Preston Van Loon, a core developer of the Ethereum (ETH) network, told attendees at the Permissionless conference that the transition, known as the Merge, would occur sometime in August if everything plays out according to plan. Ethereum core Dev @preston_vanloon just said the eth merge is ready,they are now only testing, and expects the merge to happen in August. Packed room @Permissionless are excited about it. Great question @TrustlessState. Also on panel @drakefjustin pic.twitter.com/vX4beNatJ5 — Benjamin Cohen (benjicohen.eth) (@benjicohen421) May 19, 2022 Van Loon told the 5000 attendees that the team ...
Go green or go home? What the NY State mining moratorium could mean for crypto industry
On April 26, the State of New York put itself at the forefront of the regulatory struggle with crypto, as its Assembly voted for a two-year moratorium on crypto mining operations that use energy generated by fossil-fuel power plants. Depending on how one looks at it, this development could either signal a new alarming legislative trend or a trigger that would accelerate the digital asset industry’s movement toward a more sustainable path. Moratorium with further evaluation The lower chamber of the NY state legislature, the Assembly, passed a bill that would put a two-year hold on any new mining operations using the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, as well as on the renewal of existing permits. The bill, S6486D/A7389C, is marketed by its sponsors as a necessary act of complian...
Sustainable energy usage for BTC mining grows nearly 60% in a year
Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies are further adopting green energy as the global Bitcoin mining industry increased its sustainable energy mix by approximately 59% year over year. The Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) is group of 44 Bitcoin mining companies claiming to represent 50% of the global Bitcoin network, or 100.9 exahash (EH). It released a new report on Monday April 25 with the findings. The group is also fronted by Bitcoin proponent and MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor. The latest survey of BMC member companies questioned how much electricity their companies consumed, what percentage of that electricity is generated by hydro, wind, solar, nuclear or geothermal sources, and what the hash rate of their operations were. The BMC estimates the global mining industry’s sustainable electricity...
US lawmakers sound alarm to EPA over environment concerns of crypto mining
United States House of Representatives member Jared Huffman and 12 other lawmakers have requested the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, assess crypto mining firms potentially violating environmental statutes. In a letter addressed to EPA administrator Michael Regan on Wednesday, Huffman said he and other Democratic House members had “serious concerns” around crypto firms in the United States reportedly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and not operating in accordance with either the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act. The lawmakers identified efforts to “re-open closed gas and coal facilities” as a means to produce energy for crypto mining operations as a particular area of concern, as well as “energy-inefficient” proof-of-work mining for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Monero ...
‘People should invest in all of the major layer-1s,’ says a veteran trader
Scott Melker, veteran trader and pocaster, is convinced that major layer-1 protocols should be part of everyone’s investment portfolio. Instead of picking individual crypto projects, such as NFTs or blockchain games, Melker thinks it makes more sense to bet on the blockchain infrastructure on which these projects are built. “Any of these small projects could absolutely go nuts. But you’re going to have trouble choosing what they are. You should just own the layer-1 and the infrastructure that they’re all built on,” he said in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph. “You may not own a Bored Ape, but Ethereum holders have certainly benefited from the success of Bored Apes!” he pointed out. Talking about his portfolio construction, Melker revealed that about 6...
3 reasons why Ethereum price can hit $4K in April
Three market catalysts suggest that Ethereum’s native token Ether (ETH) is well-positioned to reach $4,000 this month. Google searches for “Ethereum merge” spike Internet users’ interest in Ethereum’s upcoming network upgrade, dubbed “the Merge,” surged substantially in the week ending April 2, Google Trends’ data shows. Searches for the keyword “Ethereum Merge” reached a perfect Google Trends score of 100 on a 12-month timeframe with most traffic coming from the U.S., Singapore, Canada, and Australia. Internet trend score for the keyword ‘Ethereum Merge.’ Source: Google Trends Merge, also called ETH 2.0, refers to the Ethereum network’s full transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) from Proof-of-Work (PoW),...
