Texas Republican Congressman claims Bitcoin mining will help to rebuild the energy independence of the USA. No, he is not mad. The recent research on mining has shown unexpected results.
Crypto mining has been widely criticized for its enormous energy usage and potential harm with CO2 emission. That made some eco-activists and justice warriors announce crypto the brand-new devil for the world ecology.
But Republican Congressman from Texas Pete Sessions strongly disagrees. He says Bitcoin mining actually can have a positive impact on the whole US energy system. His statement is backed by some very qualified scientific research.
Bitcoin mining will save US energy?
“Bitcoin mining will play a critical role in rebuilding energy independence in the USA,” Pete Sessions tweeted on March 22.
According to the senator, the innovations from BTC mining industry could have global applications in industrial energy consumption and production.
For now, Texas is responsible for over 14% of the country’s total Bitcoin mining. Some politicians and activists think that the miners can break up the stability of the state’s electrical grid and have a negative environmental impact.
But as senator pointed out, the lion’s share of Texas miners are using flexible data centers and thus helping to promote renewable energy resources in the country.
What is the role of data centers?
The European scientific research shows that data centers can generate own energy. Either from small dedicated renewable power planta or draw the power from the grid depending on the grid’s current state.
In the other words, Texas miners already have access to renewable energy when needed, considering the state is the country’s biggest wind power generator.
“Hence, the (integrated energy system) may contribute to grid stability by locally using generated electricity instead of feeding it into the grid,” the research says.
Scientists think that crypto mining industry with a flexible data center model will likely prevent energy grid shortages while promoting the growth of renewable energy resources.
And being an important Bitcoin mining hub, Texas can start this energy trend in the US.
Why is crypto mining needed?
The most popular cryptocurrencies still work on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) protocol. Despite many coins are switching to Proof-of-Stake protocol (like Ethereum is planning to do this summer), PoW is still popular and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Bitcoin and any other PoW networks need miners to record and verify transactions with the computational powers.
Miners are providing these powers and getting a reward for supporting the network.
Sources: Cointelegraph
