Mining bitcoins requires a lot of energy, so much so that when the price of energy is very high, it is not worth mining, since the chances of making a profit are greatly reduced.
The fact is that this problem could be solved if we put a dedicated nuclear power reactor to mine bitcoins, since it is cheaper energy than that generated by other means.
That’s what TeraWulf, a Minnesota-based company, is doing. It plans to be the first to use nuclear power to power its Bitcoin mining operations in the United States.
The Cumulus data center in Pennsylvania, which is fully powered by the 2.5 GW Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant, will house TeraWulf’s mining operations. This will reduce carbon emissions from TeraWulf’s operations, and other mining companies are expected to follow suit in the future.
However, the problem of high energy consumption in Bitcoin mining and record keeping continues to exist, even though clean nuclear power is used.
Ethereum, the second most popular blockchain platform, has adopted a proof-of-stake system instead of a proof-of-work one to reduce its carbon emissions, something that Bitcoin does not have on its goal sheet to achieve.
The energy consumption of the Bitcoin industry has increased as math puzzles have become more difficult to solve, requiring more computational resources. By some estimates, Bitcoin mining emitted 86.3 million tons of carbon in 2022 alone. However, these figures can vary depending on where the mining operations take place and what energy sources are used.