Square Takes a Swipe at the Bitcoin Energy Debate With $5 Million Solar Mining Investment

[XiNFiNiTY]

As the conversation about Bitcoin’s energy consumption reaches a fever pitch, Jack Dorsey’s payment provider Square has unveiled plans to fund a sustainable bitcoin mining facility in conjunction with Blockstream.

Mining Project to Serve as Scalable Proof of Concept

Bitcoin faces no shortage of consternation, but the spat over the cryptocurrency’s footprint spilled out into the public over the last few weeks following comments from Elon Musk.

Although U.S. miners have come together to form the Bitcoin Mining Council following Musk’s critique by promising more transparency on mining’s energy use, Jack Dorsey’s Square plans to lead the way in terms of substantive action. Instead of jawboning the crypto up and down, Dorsey is putting Square’s reputation on the line with an investment allocation to a sustainable mining initiative.

The payment giant revealed plans to invest $5 million in a solar-energy-based mining facility in partnership with Blockstream, which will be responsible for providing the infrastructure development know-how. The project will ultimately deliver a proof of concept that underlines how sustainable bitcoin mining can be accomplished at scale, paving the way for more widespread adoption of these techniques.

Besides committing itself towards pushing renewable energy into the bitcoin mining conversation, Square envisions the project demonstrating how the cryptocurrency can be an accelerator for heightened sustainability in the future.

This action alone contrasts sharply with the more opaque position taken by Musk. However, speculation has also grown that the entrepreneur wants to throw his hat into the ring by introducing a green mining solution of his own by leveraging his existing hardware manufacturing know-how.

Square has long been a supporter of cryptocurrencies, and this latest interest in mining echoes other ambitions at the payment provider, like introducing its own hardware wallet solution. During recent tweets, Dorsey underscored that the company was considering collaborating with the community to build a bitcoin hardware wallet to focus on core features like non-custodial functionality, a user-friendly experience, reliability, and minimal setup time.

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