We were able to collect the expertise of Daniel Battenduring an exclusive one-hour conference on Bitcoin mining. Daniel Batten is the co-founder of CH4 Capital which aims to eliminate methane from the atmosphere. In particular by supporting major players in the Bitcoin mining industry. With over 15 years in ClimateTech, he decides to take an interest in Bitcoin. So he decides to do his own research. Its objective is to determine whether Bitcoin was truly “green” and ecological.
As a result of several years of research, Daniel Batten is probably the most knowledgeable expert on Bitcoin mining, on its development and its impact on our environment. Whether it is about the use of renewable energies, the development of the sector, or the future of Bitcoin mining, Daniel provides many answers during this conference.
This first part of the masterclass focuses mainly on the Bitcoin mining power network and its use cases :
The importance and different use cases of the electrical network in Bitcoin mining
Daniel Batten makes the case!#Bitcoin helps:
– Accelerate adoption of renewables
– Reduce methane in the air
– Meet 2030 emission targets
– Build renewable energy infrastructure#BTC— Timothy Blake (@blaketimothy175) July 1, 2022
According to Daniel, the use of renewable energy in Bitcoin mining would benefit even more significantly to developing countries.
“It’s not obvious to Westerners that this benefits people in developing countries, unless you go there. It’s not obvious to everyday people that this helps stabilize networks. Unless you understand how networks work. It is not obvious to people that it is really effective in absorbing blocked energy. Unless you are not in the energy sector. But if you’re in the energy business, you see it.”
Subsequently, it highlights a major problem faced by operators of solar systems or wind farms. Based on a study of the Cornell University, Daniel reveals that renewable energy operators usually find themselves with a lot of energy, but during the wrong time of day. In fact, energy is mainly available at night, when demand is lowest.
“So you’re a solar energy provider, you produce a huge amount of energy, but no one wants it. So what do you do with this blocked energy? So you’re a wind operator and you produce a ton of energy because there’s a lot of wind, but it’s blocked. You can’t put it on the network. Because networks are like highways. Once they have reached their maximum capacity, you cannot use them further. These two cases are therefore suitable for flexible consumers only. And today’s world has no more flexible energy consumer than Bitcoin mining companies. It can be located anywhere.”
In addition to the fact that Bitcoin mining hardware can be plugged in anywhere, under flexible conditions, or even throughout the day, the data from these mining machines does not don’t fear an interruption like traditional data centers.
“All you lose is a little bit of time that you are unable to mine Bitcoin. Which means it can turn off. Which means it can stabilize networks if demand gets too high. But it can also absorb all this renewable energy and use it to pay the renewable energy operator. And this for energy for which he would not have been paid otherwise. This is essential to understand. And that makes them more profitable. And what do they do with these profits? They will invest them in building more wind farms and solar parks. So it helps build the whole network.”
It is in this context that Bitcoin mimicking companies are all the more important and beneficial. In fact, they allow you to use energy that no one wants and that no one else knows how to use.
Additionally, reducing methane emissions would be even more beneficial over the next 25 years in an effort to slow climate change than using solar panels or wind farms, according to the United Nations. According to Daniel, the only reason industries aren’t focusing on this is because “we haven’t found a way to do it cost-effectively.”
“So unless we cost-effectively mitigate these methane emissions, it’s just not going to happen. It will continue to be wasted, discarded, or in some cases released into the environment.”
Bitcoin mining is the only way to put an end to all gas flaring, without subsidies
When you attack Bitcoin or say “you’re just perpetuating oil company profits” you force the oil industry to deal with methane emissions in their own way: flaringhttps://t.co/6mPnEHBmSB
— Daniel Batten (@DSBatten) November 28, 2023
Indeed, this is what is happening in the oil sector. The surplus produced is then burned, which further harms the environment.
“And so one of the very few, if not the only possible type of user is someone who has enormous computing resources. And that will again mean either high-performance computing or bitcoin mining.”
But once again, Bitcoin mining outperforms traditional high-performance computers. In fact, for the latter, only 30% of their total expenses are on electricity. Conversely, the expenses of Bitcoin miners are mainly in electricity (between 70 and 80%).
“So this is one of the very unique features of Bitcoin mining. Because electricity represents such a high percentage of your operating budget, you are willing to go to extreme lengths to reduce your electricity costs because it is the best way to control your expenses.”
If the energy-intensive needs of Bitcoin mining are seen as a negative aspect, miners can literally turn this flaw into their advantage. It is in this context that landfills are increasingly sought after by Bitcoin miners, since they are one of the three biggest methane releasers.
“And so we can take all of this methane and rather than wasting it (something that becomes pollution) we take that pollution and we use it as an energy source.”
For Daniel, this is the most “exciting” and revolutionary use case in ClimateTech and for the Bitcoin mining industry.
“Put that in a generator, purify it first, of course, remove some of the moisture and compress it, put it in a generator, and then use that generator for Bitcoin mining. And again, this is something that makes no economic sense. Unless 70, 80% of your operating budget is spent on electricity. And so Bitcoin is really in a unique position to mitigate this wasted methane energy. That is, using pollution profitably.”
Obviously, any industry seeks profitability. And to date, only Bitcoin mining can make it possible to take advantage of this energy (wasted so far) profitably. The most important aspect is that with methane emissions from landfills around the worldit would be possible to feed 1.5 times all Bitcoin mining companies in the world.
As landfills continue to expand at a constant rate (+1.4% of methane emissions per year), Bitcoin mining is quite simply the best solution that currently exists to try to slow down their harmful effect on the planet.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that Marathon Digital was the first public company to launch into using methane from landfills for Bitcoin mining. It therefore joins the 4 other private companies in this promising new movement. And according to Daniel, the interest and use of methane for BTC mining “grows very quickly”.
Source: exclusive CryptoAcademy conference
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