Square and Blockstream To Build U.S. Based Bitcoin Mine With Renewable Energy

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Bitcoin mining is on the move. Around the world, more companies and initiatives are being brought to life. Blockstream and Square have announced a partnership to build one in the U.S. based on renewable energy.

The Bitcoin infrastructure startup, led by Adam Back, and the financial services company, led by Jack Dorsey, will create an open-source Bitcoin mining facility driven by solar energy. The BTC mine will be constructed on a Blockstream mining site located in the United States.

Their objective is to share details on the project’s economics and their experience in the development of the facility. In addition, they plan to raise awareness and demonstrate BTC mining and renewable energy can be a catalyzer for a transition towards clean energy.

Square will invest $5 million and Blockstream will provide the infrastructure and expertise to help build the project. Ultimately, it will be a Proof-of-Concept used to demonstrate that green Bitcoin mining at scale it’s possible. Thus, the need for transparency in every detail. Chris Cook, CIO and head of Mining at Blockstream said:

Many mining operations throughout the world, including our own, already rely on renewable energy because it is the most cost-effective power available. Together with Square, we hope that the open and transparent nature of the project will become a model that other businesses can learn from.

Bitcoin, A Tool To Build A Sustainable Future

Once built, the BTC mining facility will allow other participants to expand the operations. It will be designed to be scalable and with the capacity to add more support for future growth.

Neil Jorgensen, Global ESG Lead at Square, revealed to be excited about the partnership and along with Blockstream will contribute with a working model to prove their thesis. Jorgensen added:

The project will serve as an ongoing, transparent case study that will allow us to all learn together the specific unit economics of clean energy Bitcoin mining. We can’t wait to start sharing our results with the community.

Blockstream will provide regular reports on the project and will have a publicly available dashboard to display real-time metrics on the BTC mine’s performance. This will include its power output and the amount of BTC mined. The dashboard will be based on a technology called Blockstream Mining Note (BMN).

Square has made several efforts to support the growth of Bitcoin and its ecosystem. The Dorsey-led company published a Whitepaper with firm Ark Invest on a system based on renewable power to drive batteries and use BTC mining to absorb the excess energy.

During a discussion with Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, in the Bitcoin 2021 Conference, Dorsey said:

Ultimately miners have to make a profit and getting cheap renewable energy maximizes their potential for profit (…). Bitcoin over time and today does incentivized more renewable energy and awareness about how they are getting that power. It gives people freedom to convert wasted power into something that creates value for billions of people around the world.

BTC trades at $36,132 with a persistent sideways trend after an over 50% correction in the past week. In the 7-day and 30-day charts, BTC has a 1.2% profit and a 37.1% loss, respectively.

Bitcoin BTC BTCUSD
BTC with sideways movement in the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD Tradingview



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