Riot Blockchain

As of August 2021, Riot was the most extensive Bitcoin mining operation in the United States. A little outside of Austin, Texas, the company leverages three-hundred megawatts of energy from the grid to power over 100,000 mining computers in only three buildings. They plan to raise their energy consumption to 750 megawatts and build another 130,000 machines by late 2022.

Riot isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. If demand increases, they have a multi-year contract to purchase even more power from the local grid. Riot can even resell its power back to the grid if it wants. As CEO Jason Les said, “At this scale of energy procurement, we are not just mining [B]itcoin…[we are a] virtual power plant.”

Crusoe Energy Systems

Crusoe raised 128 million dollars in 2021 to build its data centers and Bitcoin mining operations. Investors include DRW Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, and Tesla co-founder JB Straubel.

Around the same time that it had raised new capital, researchers and policymakers became focused on methane gas release as a new concern with respect to global warming. This was perfect timing for Crusoe, which powers its infrastructure with greenhouse gas emissions.

The oil and gas industry releases more methane gas than most others. Crusoe operates out of North Dakota, where 500 million cubic feet of gas are flared daily. The company runs forty data centers that harness flared natural gas as of 2021. By next year, they expect to operate 100 units across six states.

Co-founder of Crusoe Energy, Lochmiller, said that “Where we view our power consumption, we draw a very clear line in our project evaluation stage where we’re reducing emissions for…oil and gas projects.”

Argo & DMG

Early this year, Argo Blockchain PLC and DMG Blockchain solutions started the first-ever Bitcoin mining pool that would run on green energy. This so-called ‘Terra Pool’ will operate in alignment with our best understanding of climate change.

The two companies signed an agreement when the Bitcoin mining sector came under fire for its potential adverse effects on the climate.

Terra Pool would run on hydroelectric energy, a clean energy source that I discussed in a previous blog post.

As Peter Wall, CEO of Argo Blockchain, said, “Addressing climate change is a priority for Argo and partnering with DMG to create the first ‘green’ [B]itcoin mining pool is an important step towards protecting our planet now and for generations to come.”

Argo and DMG want to decrease greenhouse gas emissions over the next several years, so keep an eye on this partnership.

Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. (formerly Fortress Technologies) & Great American Mining

In April 2021, CoinDesk announced that Fortress Technologies and Great American Mining (GAM) planned to form a partnership. Fortress had agreed to invest fifteen million dollars in GAM’s mining equipment, leveraging stranded gas as energy to mine Bitcoin.

GAM is an excellent case study of the green effects of Bitcoin mining. Before this partnership, the company was already producing mining rigs that convert flared and vented natural gas into hashpower.

Since the announcement of the companies’ partnership, Fortress has rebranded itself as Cathedra Bitcoin Inc., a clear indication of its direction in the years to come.

AJ Scalia, Chief Executive Officer of Cathedra, said that “As a permissionless energy sink, [B]itcoin mining offers the perfect economic incentive to improve our ability to harness energy. We at Cathedra believe this will have a profound and beautiful impact on humanity, enabling us to combat many of the largest problems we face today and advance further as a species.”

Stronghold Digital Mining

This company uses energy from waste coal to mine Bitcoin. Although their stock has recently taken some tumbles, it had initially risen 52% on their 2021 Nasdaq debut.

When China banned all Bitcoin mining, Stronghold’s co-founder Bill Spence saw a market opportunity. Having spent twenty years ridding his native Pennsylvania of waste coal, Spence now intends to utilize waste coal to generate electricity for the state’s Bitcoin miners.

Greg Beard, CEO of Stronghold, said that “We are reclaiming and remediating a legacy problem from decades of coal mining in Pennsylvania…Bitcoin mining is the most economic use of that power today.”

Coming Soon: Sazmining

Sazmining aims to provide a platform for anyone in the world to get in on the Bitcoin mining action without ever having to learn the technical details of how to mine. This company acts as a middle man between customers and miners, turning anyone in the world into an investor. You hand Sazmining financial capital, they hand it off to miners who run on green energy, and you reap some of the Bitcoin rewards earned by the miners.

In short, they are democratizing and expanding green Bitcoin mining by providing a platform for people to get involved by investing capital into mining, rather than by mining directly.

Sazmining’s services will be available soon, and you don’t want to be the last in line.

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