Bitcoin (BTC) Mining Getting Greener as Chinese Miners’ Exodus Continues

The United States is now the new hotspot for bitcoin (BTC) miners who have been forced to leave China since May. The events of the past months have effectively crashed Bitcoin’s energy usage and experts have predicted that over 40 percent of the global hashrate by 2022, will be controlled by North America, thanks to the abundance of cheap renewable energy sources in the region.

Bitcoin Carbon Footprint Getting Increasingly ‘Greener’ 

While China’s crackdown on bitcoin miners since May 2021 initially came as a huge shock to stakeholders in the ecosystem, triggering a massive bloodbath in the price of bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins, the move is turning out to be a blessing in disguise for the pioneer proof-of-work (PoW) based cryptocurrency.

Per sources close to the latest development, in the past six months, the United States, which previously occupied the fifth spot in the global bitcoin mining map has leaped to second place, and it now accounts for 17 percent of bitcoin mining activities globally.

Despite the lack of regulatory clarity in the U.S. crypto industry, crypto regulation in the jurisdiction is still fairer than China’s totally draconian stance and the abundance of clean, renewable energy is now fast transforming the United States, especially North America into a global bitcoin mining giant.

According to Whit Gibbs, CEO and founder of Compass, a bitcoin mining service provider, retail hardware and hosting sales has surged by nearly 300 percent for market participants in the U.S. since mid-June 2021, 

Bitcoin’s Future Looks Entirely Green

The Bitcoin network’s energy consumption narrative has been one of the strongest talking points for critics over the years and the war against global warming has further intensified that argument in recent times.

While global bitcoin mining operations may not become entirely green overnight, as some of the operators that left China are still in Kazakhstan, a country that largely depends on electricity generated from coal, observers have predicted that the country’s new legislation that aims to increase taxes for bitcoin miners would effectively make it less attractive in the long run.

North America, on the other hand, is blessed with some of the world’s richest wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, and biomass resources.

Though it’s still unclear whether the U.S. will slap exorbitant taxes on bitcoin mining operations as time goes on, North America remains the destination of choice for miners at the moment and Fed Thiel, the CEO of Marathon Digital has predicted that if the roughly 500,000 formerly Chinese mining rigs successfully make it to North America, the region could account for a massive 40 percent of the global Bitcoin hashrate by 2022.

In all, as miners keep getting enlightened on the importance of adopting clean renewable energy sources for their work, it’s only a matter of time before the entire bitcoin ecosystem goes green, totally putting the flagship crypto’s carbon emission argument to rest.

At press time, the bitcoin price is hovering around $30,851, with a market cap of $578.85 billion, as seen on CoinMarketCap.