What Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are missing about Bitcoin and green energy

Bitcoin mining now uses 66 times more electricity than in 2015, Citigroup Inc said in a recent report. The Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge estimates it uses more electricity a year than the Netherlands. — AFP

A trio of Jack Dorsey, Cathie Wood and Elon Musk are promoting the idea that Bitcoin mining can be good for the planet actually. That’s not exactly true.

The basis of the idea is that mining crypto currencies uses a lot of power and can be deployed at any time. That could help a developer make money minting coins at a time when there’s lots of wind or sunshine, but not much electricity demand. Making better use of wind and solar, where power generation can be intermittent, increases efficiency, lowers prices and helps encourage the green transition.