Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty) Bitcoin’s massive power consumption is the cryptocurrency’s dirty secret. To mine bitcoin, computers across the globe chew through enough electricity to power a medium size country, somewhere on the order of the Netherlands or Poland depending on the particular estimate. In fact, electricity has become such the significant factor […]
Enlarge / In this aerial photo of Greenidge Generation’s power plant outside Dresden, NY, Seneca Lake is visible in the background. The lake receives warm water from Greenidge’s operations. (credit: Greenidge Generation LLC ) The fossil fuel power plant that a private equity firm revived to mine bitcoin is at it again. Not content to […]
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty) Few bitcoin projects illustrate the cryptocurrency’s enormous climate impact better than the Greenidge power plant in upstate New York. The once-abandoned power plant was bought by private equity firm Atlas Holdings and retasked. A significant portion of Greenidge’s electricity no longer powers nearby homes or businesses; rather, the plant’s […]