Cathie Wood recently tweeted that using methane emissions at well sites could significantly lower the cost of mining bitcoin compared to what public bitcoin miners are paying for electricity today.
She further went on and said this could turbocharge electricity generated by solar and wind.
Cathie cited Sam Korus, one of ARKInvest’s team members, who presented new data on how using methane that would otherwise be flared could be used for bitcoin mining instead of just going to waste.
According to the research published by Korus, about half of global methane emissions happen at well sites.
Instead of just flaring the unwanted methane, and not being able to make use of the stranded energy, bitcoin miners could use natural gas generators to mine bitcoin on-site. This way the methane could be put to use.
Using bitcoin mining to take advantage of stranded energy at volcanoes, waterfalls and to harness natural gas emissions is nothing new.
But the research published by Korus shows that mining bitcoin at well sites that would otherwise flare the methane could be significantly cheaper than what public bitcoin mining companies are currently paying to mine bitcoin.
Mining bitcoin profitably is all about reducing electricity costs, which makes the cheapest electricity most attractive.
Since bitcoin mining operations have a certain level of flexibility and can set up mining rigs in remote locations, well sites could become an attractive opportunity to make use of unwanted methane, capture the stranded energy and turn it into value that can be stored and transported over the bitcoin network.
Currently, the annual gas flaring emissions equal 265 billion cubic meters. This number includes methane emissions. According to ARKInvest’s research, maintaining the current bitcoin hashrate would only require 25 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
Bitcoin mining can help reduce gas flaring. And since bitcoin miners are always looking for the cheapest energy, no matter how far away or stranded it is, the bitcoin mining industry, according to Cathie and ARKInvest, could help the world move towards renewable energy faster.
Korus said: “Our research suggests that installing natural gas generators at well sites and using methane that otherwise would be vented could generate electricity at a cost much lower than public bitcoin mining companies pay today.
