According to a report released on July 23 by the International Energy Agency assessed emissions due to Bitcoin (BTC). BTC mining is likely responsible for 10‑20 Megatonne (Mt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year or 0.03-0.06% of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Bitcoin consumed more in 6 months than Ireland in 12 Per the report, the recent price and hash rate increase of the Bitcoin network increased its energy consumption, and it is estimated that during the first six months of 2019 it has already consumed 29 TWh. This is more than the annual energy consumption of Ireland (26 TWh). …

Energy network company E.ON has filed a patent application for a blockchain-based data collector with the European Patent Office. E.ON announced the patent filing on the company’s website on July 19. As per the announcement, the device in question makes use of sensors to collect user data, which the user can then choose to sell as data analytics. According to the announcement, users supply data from smart home applications. E.ON claims that the customer has sole control over who accesses any given portion of their data. This includes E.ON itself, which cannot access customer data without explicit consent. Regarding the …

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of American tech giant Apple, has invested in a new blockchain-based company headquartered in Malta. Wozniak is now the co-founder of energy efficiency company Efforce, according to a report by Maltese news daily The Malta Independent on July 18. Wozniak co-founded the company alongside Jacopo Visetti, who — according to his LinkedIn profile — works in the renewable energy and environment sector. According to this page, Visetti co-founded Efforce in January, 2018 — approximately one year and seven months ago. According Efforce's LinkedIn page, the company provides the first blockchain-based platform focused on investing in energy efficiency, …

Police in China arrested 22 suspects allegedly involved in illegal crypto mining activity that led to energy loss worth of about $3 million, reports XinhuaNet, the official press agency of China, on July 12. Police in Jiangsu, China’s eastern-central coastal province, have reportedly seized 4,000 hardware units that were illegally used to mine cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin (BTC) at nine factories. According to the report, Jiangsu police launched a criminal investigation after a local power firm reported an abnormal spike in electricity consumption. After almost two months of investigation, the police in the city of Zhenjiang in Jiangsu detected a …

Shell, the world’s fifth largest oil and gas firm, has invested in a blockchain-based energy startup, Forbes reports on July 10. The European oil and gas giant has invested an undisclosed amount in New York-based LO3, whose Exergy platform tracks energy with blockchain technology. The recent investment in LO3 marks Shell’s fourth public investment in blockchain-related firms, Forbes noted, listing platforms such as Vakt, Komgo, and Applied Blockchain as other portfolio blockchain companies. According to the report, Shell has an option to convert its investment in LO3’s native tokens called XRG, which will be used to incentivize the platform and …

United States-based clean energy development firm Clearway Energy Group is launching a pilot program for trading renewable energy credits on a blockchain, Bloomberg reported on June 28. Per the report, Clearway Energy partnered with Ethereum (ETH)-based energy trading startup Power Ledger to jointly build a system for trading renewable energy certificates. Power Ledger reportedly told Bloomberg that initially the solution will be tested in Massachusetts, generating one to five megawatts of electricity, while the second test will take place in the Midwest and generate upwards of 20 megawatts. The report further notes that the U.S. renewable energy certificates market is …

Authorities in Iran have confiscated about 1,000 units of bitcoin (BTC) mining machines from two now-defunct factories, BBC reported on June 28 As reported, local authorities noticed a surge in electricity consumption by 7% earlier in June and linked it to cryptocurrency mining activities. Officials subsequently discovered and removed the mining hardware from two former factories. Arash Navab, an electricity official, reportedly said that "two of these bitcoin farms have been identified, with a consumption of one megawatt." An Oxford researcher told the BBC that Iranians are increasingly turning to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as a means of skirting sanctions. Cointelegraph …

The Ministry of Economy of the partially-recognized Republic of Abkhazia has developed a law draft on the settlement of cryptocurrency mining activities in the country. The news was reported by a local branch of Russian state-backed media outlet Sputnik on June 24. The press service of the Ministry told Sputnik that the drafted bill was approved and sent to the Cabinet of Ministers of the republic. The proposed regulation defines legal, economic, organizational, and technical rules for the implementation of mining cryptocurrency activities in the republic. To conduct crypto mining operations, one will have to register as a legal entity …

The Iranian government will be cutting off power to crypto mining until new energy prices are approved, according to a report by local news agency Iran Daily on June 24. Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, an official at Iran’s Ministry of Energy, reportedly revealed that the country has seen a 7% spike of electricity consumption over a monthly period ending on June 21, 2019. Rajabi emphasized the unusual nature of the spike, as opposed to similar time spans in the past years, revealing that the country’s power grid had evidently become unstable. According to the official, the Iranian Ministry of Energy believes …

Blockchain-based energy trading firm Power Ledger will roll out its peer-to-peer (P2P) network in Graz, the second-largest city in Austria, according to an announcement on June 18. The Australia-based company has partnered with E-NEXT, an innovation arm of major Austria’s energy utility Energie Steiermark, to launch its blockchain-powered energy trading platform in and around Graz. The initiative is an attempt to optimize energy distribution and to contribute to the city's transition towards zero-carbon energy, the release notes. As such, Power Ledger’s technology is expected to enable rooftop solar energy-based households in the city to sell excess renewable energy to their …

The carbon emissions generated by bitcoin (BTC) are comparable to the whole of Kansas City, and even a small country, according to a study published in the Joule journal on June 12. Christian Stoll, one of the researchers involved in the project, said the large energy consumption generated through mining translates into a significant carbon footprint. And, as the computing power needed to solve a bitcoin puzzle has more than quadrupled since last year, it is a problem that is getting worse, the study notes. It adds: “The magnitude of these carbon emissions, combined with the risk of collusion and …

The deputy energy minister of Iran has said that electricity bills for digital currency miners should be calculated in accordance to real prices, Iranian economic daily newspaper Financial Tribune reported on June 9. Iran’s deputy energy minister, Homayoun Haeri, has stated that electricity bills for cryptocurrency mining activities should be priced according to the same rates established for power exports. The government reportedly pays nearly $1 billion in subsidies annually to bridge the gap in real electricity costs and what consumers are billed, Financial Tribune writes. As reported last December, Iranians were profiting from digital currency mining despite the crash …