By now you have probably heard about the newly established Bitcoin Mining Council which is referred to as the BMC. But you're probably wondering what exactly the BMC is, whose apart of it and what it's aim is.
I think this is a common question circulating around the cryptoshphere with many still unsure about who or what it is and if it's needed.
Let's try and break down some of the information that is out there and what we know thus far and see if we can get a clearer picture.
On 13 May 2021 Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla would no longer be accepting Bitcoin as it's environmental footprint did not meet the vision of his company.
This resulted in a market crash and a backlash not only from Bitcoin investors but also miners whom came to arms stating that it wasn't true.
Source
However, more and more research is providing an insight into the electricity needed and being used at current to process transactions. Despite arguments for and against it is pretty clear that Bitcoin requires alot of electricity and as the majority of miners reside in China the most common form of electricity generation is from coal power plants. It has been recorded that old coal power plants are being switched back on just to power bitcoin mining farms.
While this was occurring Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor got to work meeting with North American Bitcoin miners to see what could be done to resolve the energy issue.
Hosting a meeting with Elon Musk, Argo Blockchain, Galaxy Digital, Blockcap, Hive Blockchain and a number of other North American miners they discussed plans on promoting energy usage transparency & accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide. Elon Musk stated it was promising and since then the market quickly went on another bull run.
In my personal opinion it appears that the messaging is not clear, nothing to be too concerned about at this stage as the BMC is only a few days old and will take some time to establish a vision, mission and what it is they will be working too.
But from information ascertained Micheal appears to believe that Bitcoin mining doesn't use as much electricity as what's being reported and that a large portion of the electricity needed comes from renewable.
Elon Musk on the other hand believes that Bitcoin utilises too much fossil fuels and is not inline with his companies vision and mission statement.
Michael wants to commence campaigns on educational material to help curb uninformed information.
Either way, I think this is a wonderful step in the right direction as I am wanting to know abit more about usage. But I also don't want to know about it from Michael and Elon.
Both are massive investors in Bitcoin and the Bitcoin council is solely two large financial investors and North American miners.
Furthermore, as reported Here the council only represents 10% of Bitcoins hash rate. No where near a majority or a large enough slice of the sector to get accurate data.
They're only going to be reporting on the 10% power usage leaving a larger majority unable to be tracked and reported on in China, where coal fire power plants are being fired up to run bitcoin miners.
In fact there have been an increase in coal power plants being flooded and going off-line, a recent Flooding shut down a 3rd of the bitcoin supply.
China isn't alone with America also firing up old Fossil fuel power generators to process bitcoin.
Before the BMC has even started its campaign to disprove the misinformation it appears they are already behind the 8 ball.
But it's not all bad, given that the BMC will work all this out on their own will hopefully enable them to start producing renewable energy to fund bitcoin processing I.e. mining.
Personally, I do have concerns that the actual investors and miners are running the BMC which leads to a massive conflict of interest and a question we should all ask, Will they do what's in the best interests for us or them?
Renewable energy is expensive and I do hope this enables the sector to advance renewable energy supply. Given China is also on the same track to start tackling bitcoin mining being undertaken by dirty coal power plants and puts their nation's CO2 emissions targets at significant risk this could be a joint effort.
But then again, Michael and Elons positions are null and void should China pursue it on their own. They hold an estimated 80% of the Hash rate.
In conclusion the BMC is 10% of the mining Hash rate and two investors meeting to challenge the current narrative that Bitcoin uses alot of fossil fuels.
Let's keep an eye on them and see how they progress over the coming weeks and months.
