In a recently published paper, PayPal’s Blockchain Research Group (BRG) proposed “the possibility for a more sustainable future” in Bitcoin mining. The investigation revealed that, as of April 2, data estimates the annualized emissions to be over 85 million metric tons of carbon dioxide due to Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism:
The paper suggests routing on-chain transactions to “green miners” via low transaction fees with a BTC reward “locked” in a multisig payout address. The rewards would serve as an incentive to mine these transactions, as only green miners would be eligible to receive them.
The solution is based on identifying miners that use low-emissions energy sources. After identification, their public keys, referred to as “green keys,” would be used to reward miners with Bitcoin in a trust-independent method through a “1-of-n multisig script.” As a result, the payout address would allow the miners with green keys to claim the rewards.
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Green miners are usually used for public relations and to prove that accepting Bitcoin means an attempt by PayPal to make it better, either in terms of environmental impact or regulatory impact, both of which are useful for increasing the stock price and addressing the concerns of investors who may not be interested in Bitcoin, but in the end, if they want to implement these ideas, they must create a new altcoin.
The first is that who decides what is a "green miner" and who isn't. That's right, they have centralized entities doing that which means the mining process becomes less decentralizedd as the process can be hijacked to exclude miners they don't like.In essence, if it were possible to accurately determine the "greenness" of miners, I would partially support this idea of making the BTC mining industry even "greener" by utilizing more sustainable energy sources. However, I don't see PayPal proposing any solutions for this, unless they intend to manage all miners and decide on their own to license miners who meet PayPal's "green" criteria ::)
Second, who actually guarantees that any of the transactions are going to land in a block. This would require all miners not submitting their block templates to Bitcoin and to the centralized entity. This stinks of sanctions.
The first is that who decides what is a "green miner" and who isn't. That's right, they have centralized entities doing that which means the mining process becomes less decentralizedd as the process can be hijacked to exclude miners they don't like.
Second, who actually guarantees that any of the transactions are going to land in a block. This would require all miners not submitting their block templates to Bitcoin and to the centralized entity. This stinks of sanctions.
The first is that who decides what is a "green miner" and who isn't. That's right, they have centralized entities doing that which means the mining process becomes less decentralizedd as the process can be hijacked to exclude miners they don't like.
Proof of owning your solar panel or whatever and a contract in which you;re liable for damages if you breach it by using grid power.
Prett easy to do and enforcable.
You simply cannot enforce this in the protocol. This is one of those solutions that has to be enforced politically, and honestly with the anti-crypto waves of legislation we've been witnessing in the last few days, it is more likely that they dig a grave and hold a funeral service for decentralized currency than for these legal people to pass any green laws.*
*Unless the place you live in is called New York, but that place has its own problems with crypto.
To help identify green miners and onboard them to the solution, we can leverage
solutions by providers such as Energy Web, a global non-profit organization with a
mission to accelerate the energy transition. Using the Green Proofs for Bitcoin validation platform, miners
can apply for and share their sustainable mining certifications. Miners can then
selectively disclose these certifications and the underlying sustainability data with crypto
market participants and business counterparties.
Miners can obtain Green Proofs for Bitcoin certification by achieving either a Clean
Energy Score or a Grid Impact Score higher than 50. The details of how these scores are
calculated can be found here.
It's basically a closed pool just like Foundry, you share proof that you're US-based, you're licensed, you have the number of hashes needed and you can get an account, which is the same as a key with this green project.
Well that's bad, that means it's just another centralized pool that will want to start operations in Bitcoin mining.
What will happen when all of these mining companies combined control over 50% of the harsh rate?
Maybe they should make conventional data centers greener first.
....
I see two big problems with this.
The first is that who decides what is a "green miner" and who isn't. That's right, they have centralized entities doing that which means the mining process becomes less decentralizedd as the process can be hijacked to exclude miners they don't like.
Second, who actually guarantees that any of the transactions are going to land in a block. This would require all miners not submitting their block templates to Bitcoin and to the centralized entity. This stinks of sanctions.