Elon Musk & Jack Dorsey Team Up To Build Eco-Friendly Bitcoin Mines
By Alexa Heah, 11 Apr 2022
Though former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Tesla founder Elon Musk may not be working together on the social media network’s edit button, the two technology titans have teamed up for another venture: developing a Bitcoin mine powered by renewable energy.
The project was revealed by Blockstream co-founder Adam Back, the third party involved, at the recent Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami.
According to CNBC, the facility will be powered by Tesla’s 3.8 megawatt polar PV array and its 12 megawatt-hour Megapack, and will function as a proof of concept that the cryptocurrency can be mined in an eco-friendly manner at scale.
With Tesla having paused payments made in Bitcoin due to its environmental risks, it’s likely Musk plans to take a step towards making cryptocurrencies more eco-friendly in order to boost its popularity even further.
Interestingly, Dorsey and Musk have decided to make the project’s dashboard publicly accessible during the project, allowing the public to keep track of performance metrics, including power output, storage performance, and Bitcoin mined.
Back said that it was an important step to proving to the world that Bitcoin mining could be used to accelerate renewable energy infrastructure, and be part of the economic push for the future.
If the venture ends up being profitable, he expects more companies to add wind power to the solar generators to build out the entire project, which would fulfill the trio’s end goal of diversifying energy sources for cryptocurrencies.
[via CNBC and Input, cover image via David Shankbone / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0) and ID 188100223 © Hutchinsphoto | Dreamstime.com]