Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has decided to support a new Bitcoin Mining Council that was founded by American Bitcoin miners with the purpose to improve the energy efficiency of cryptocurrency, which has often been criticized for using up too much electricity when mined.
“Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current and planned renewable usage and to ask miners worldwide to do so. Potentially promising” Elon Musk tweeted after the meeting. The purpose of the Council will be to “promote energy usage transparency” and to encourage miners to use renewable energy resources when mining cryptos, instead of coal-generated electricity.
According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, at the moment Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than the Netherlands or Hong Kong and 75% of all Bitcoin is being mined in China, where the main source of electricity is, you guessed it, coal.
SourcePersonally, I think aiming to change that is a great goal, but I also think Musk is doing this more for PR purposes than anything else. Time will tell whether anything will come of it.