The Bitcoin analyst and environmentalist Daniel Batten has laid out the steps he thinks are necessary for Bitcoin to become carbon neutral. Batten begins by speculating that Bitcoin mining may be the world’s first business (apart from renewable energy) to absorb more carbon dioxide than it produces since it can utilize stranded power sources other companies can’t.
Without employing offsets, Bitcoin would need 67,166 of the newest Bitcoin mining units (ASICS) powered by vented methane to achieve carbon neutrality. This is only 3.4% of the current supply of $2 million (ASICS). According to Batten, this is not even close to being impossible.
That would cost somewhere in the range of 1 to 2 billion dollars. The cost of using methane from vents is higher. Batten said that people don’t need much more than ASICS, generators, and maybe even biogas purifiers. That comes out to around $15 per ton in a market where anything priced at less than $50 per ton is seen as acceptable.
Batten estimates that it will be a long time before Bitcoin is no longer associated with any net emissions. He compares the bitcoin mining sector of 2023 to the solar industry of 1993, noting that both generate more greenhouse gasses than they absorb. However, the trajectory analysis reveals compelling evidence that this will change, and that the story will develop in a different way over the next several years.
Batten concluded his forecast by stating that given the current trajectory, Bitcoin has the potential to become the world’s first non-energy producing business to see net emission reductions without the need of offsets. He went on to point out that this would be a significant victory for mankind as a whole.
