Uber and Tesla CEOs stress 'virtual currency eco-friendliness'

Bitcoin (BTC) has been treated as "digital gold" and has received great attention from many global companies along with soaring prices, but has suddenly remained somewhat flat and lulled due to falling prices. In this trend, the fact that virtual currency mining is not eco-friendly has also emerged as a major cause of the decline.

Cryptocurrency regulations are gradually spreading, with China, the largest cryptocurrency mining country, banning cryptocurrency transactions and mining in September last year, followed by a temporary ban on cryptocurrency mining in the Balkan Peninsula due to high power consumption.

Russia's central bank, the third-largest country in virtual currency mining, advised its government to ban both virtual currency transactions and mining altogether. This is because mining risks both energy supply and eco-friendly conversion as it consumes a large amount of electricity.

However, despite ESG evaluation experts' claim that Bitcoin energy consumption is much lower than that of alternative financial systems, negative perceptions related to virtual currency mining are not easily eliminated.

Galaxy Digital published a study on the energy consumption of bitcoin mining in May 2021, which found it to be far less than the energy consumed by gold or the banking industry. However, due to ESG concerns, numerous global companies have tended to either shut down their Bitcoin business or abandon their investments.

The software community Mozilla, for example, has temporarily suspended cryptocurrency donations over concerns about 'environmental impact'. Tesla has also reduced its acceptance of Bitcoin because of its environmental impact. Following Mozilla, the Wikimedia Foundation canceled its cryptocurrency contribution plan for the same reason.

In the midst of this, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has revealed that he is considering introducing a Bitcoin payment system.

According to CNBC in the U.S. on February 11, Uber will accept Bitcoin and other major virtual currencies as payment methods in the future, CEO Kososhai said. "We will unconditionally accept the introduction of the Bitcoin payment system at some point." However, he said, "We are concerned about the impact of the enormous energy generated from Bitcoin mining on the environment," adding, "We plan to actively adopt virtual currency if cryptocurrency mining turns into an eco-friendly method."

Tesla cited the problem of "power consumption" of virtual currency as the reason for stopping Bitcoin payments in May. Bitcoin mining consumes too much electricity, causing fossil fuel use.

In this regard, CEO Elon Musk hinted at the possibility of "conditional resumption" in July last year. He said, "I want to make sure that Bitcoin's use of new and renewable energy has reached more than 50% and that the number continues to rise. If so, Tesla is likely to resume payment of Bitcoin," he vowed.

Since Tesla made a splash in the Chinese market early last year, virtual currency environmental issues have become an issue. Although energy consumption required for mining has increased due to a surge in Bitcoin, the remarks seemed to be conscious of the trend of "energy mix" moving toward eco-friendly as China abruptly banned the mining of virtual currency.

Until now, virtual currency Bitcoin has been criticized for its environmental impact. The reason why Bitcoin's proof of work (PoW) is criticized is that it needs too much energy to mine.

In a related development, a high-ranking official of the European Securities and Market Supervisory Service (ESMA) demanded the European Union (EU) ban on mining virtual currency such as Bitcoin.

On the 19th of last month, Erik Theedéen, deputy director of ESMA, said, "Bitcoin mining has become a national problem in Sweden, and mining could threaten the achievement of the Paris Climate Convention goals. In order to reduce enormous power consumption, we need to switch to a PoS model with low energy intensity, he argued. This emphasizes both environmental problems and power consumption problems.

Financial experts say the focus should not be on curbing the development of bitcoin-related monetary technology, stressing that the focus should be on building renewable development. In addition, efforts are needed to meet global carbon neutrality policies and green eco-friendly trends and eliminate the perception that virtual currency mining is the main culprit of environmental pollution.

Public opinion is rising that it is necessary to create an eco-friendly power trading platform ecosystem equipped with a so-called more efficient mining system. It is time to build an eco-friendly ecosystem that is mutually win-win through the combination of solar power, which is considered a so-called representative eco-friendly energy source, and advanced power-saving high-efficiency and low-noise mining systems.

It is a mining method that can solve the problems of high power consumption, noise, and environmental pollution using the existing work certification method. The combination of an eco-friendly mining system and a high-efficiency solar energy source storage system (ESS) that can be mined with a small amount of power is drawing attention as a time-space proof method that introduces a short time in a narrow space.

Tesla Elon Musk predicted, "In the long run, renewable energy will be the cheapest energy," adding, "Tesla will give support if the mining industry shows firm and genuine efforts to transform eco-friendly."

In this regard, industry experts acknowledge that a smart mining system with dramatically improved power efficiency and noise using solar energy currently under consideration in Korea is an ideal solution.

According to the industry, the company is known to be in a position to prove the true nature of the "solar coin" through specific data by actually building it under the concept of a model house in the suburbs of Seoul.

The problem is to show the actual appearance regardless of the concept. First of all, Penguin's "First Mover" role is expected from a leading standpoint.

New York, USA= Kim Deokhui, staff reporter  ajtwoddlejrg@nvp.co.kr