1/ Been reading a lot of nonsense on the environmental cost of #bitcoin . For years people have rolled out arguments that $BTC consumes the same amount of power as XYZ nation, and this *necessarily* means it produces the same amount of CO2. Bitcoin is green af and here's why:

2/ First some basics on energy grids. Some parts of the grid have excess supply of electricity, due to their proximity to large sources of energy (coal power plants, nuclear plants, hydroelectric plants etc). At a high level, power is cheaper the closer you are to these sources.

3/ Generally speaking, you can build fossil fuel plants wherever you want, because you can ship the fuel to the plant. So you build the plant near to sources of demand (industry, cities etc).

4/ When building renewables, you don't have the same amount of freedom. You need to build hydro dams near rivers, you need to build wind farms where it is windy, and solar farms where the sun shines. Hydro and geothermal sources give you the least amount of geographic freedom

5/ Because you need to build hydro and geothermal plants in very specific locations, these locations are rarely proximate to sources of demand. This results in a massive surplus of energy being produced by hydro plants

6/ You can transmit electricity, but these power lines have a cost, and transmission suffers from attenuation (loss of power over distance). The upshot is that power costs directly adjacent to some renewable sources are *much* lower than fossil fuel sources...

7/ Sometimes, these energy costs can actually approach zero. Remember, you can build a #bitcoin mining operation where ever you want; all you need is an internet connection and a source of electricity. Internet connectivity can be established almost anywhere on earth...

8/ So bitcoin mining operations select their sites based almost entirely on how cheap the electricity is. So where would you expect to find a bitcoin mining operation? Inland China (hydro), Iceland (hydro and geothermal), Georgia (hydro), Canada (hydro) etc etc

9/ I've seen some data on the distribution of bitcoin hashrate among countries. This data is hugely flawed and often leaves out countries which everyone knows are hugely popular for crypto mining. e.g. this Cambridge data https://cbeci.org/mining_map  does not include Iceland, Georgia

10/ I would suggest looking instead at publicly listed mining companies to see where they base their operations: $RIOT Massena NY, right next to the Moses-Saunders Power Dam. $HIVE Iceland, Canada, Sweden - hydro, geothermal etc. $HUT Alberta, Canada, abundant wind etc etc.

11/ Georgia (the country) now has around 15% of global hash rate, due to its abundance of hydro power. The attraction of bitcoin mining to renewable energy sources is *literally a force of nature*. Anyone who argues otherwise doesn't understand energy or economics.

12/ Remember, in order for the electricity to be cheap, the energy production needs to be in surplus. This means bitcoin mining is using energy that would have otherwise been wasted.

13/ I have been investing in this industry for 5 years and have never come across a single mining opportunity that wasn't located right next to a renewable energy source. Don't believe the nocoiners who are just salty that they are missing out on all the gains.

14/ They can have fun staying poor, while we are doing the world a favor, subsidizing the economic return of large scale renewable energy projects buy buying electricity that would otherwise be wasted. #bitcoin is green, deal with it.