Climate change is one of the most important issues and threats of contemporary times. The UNEP Climate Synthesis report reiterates that humans are responsible for all global heating over the past 200 years leading to a current temperature rise of 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. Cryptocurrencies are accused at regular intervals for carbon emissions caused during mining.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is one of the major organizations working against climate change recently posted a Two minutes long video admiring Crusoe, a company with a mission to eliminate routine flaring of natural gas and reduce the cost of cloud computing. In the video post by the WEF the images and visuals showcased efforts of the company towards reducing flaring. Flaring is generally a common practice near oil fields and processing plants across the world, with companies burning off gas that is generated as a byproduct during various processes involved in oil exploration and extraction.
It is important to note here that Crusoe Energy system is a Colorado based energy company that performs Bitcoin mining. It is remarkable to see the images used in the video appeared similar to the crypto mining system, however, surprisingly the WEF nowhere used the word Bitcoin. In June 2022, Crusoe Energy partnered with the government of Oman — a country that exports 21% of its gas production and seeks zero gas flaring by 2030.
This two minutes long video invited a throng of miners on Twitter announcing this as an acceptance of cryptocurrencies. For example MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor tweeted that “even the WEF is recognizing the environmental benefits of Bitcoin Mining.”
Meanwhile, Kristine Cranley, a director at the advocacy group the Texas Blockchain Council, tweeted that the video didn’t once mention “the b word”: Bitcoin.
Crusoe energy, builds, operates and manages mobile and modular data centers that help in performing the process. The company catches waste methane to power data centers then co locate on location with these waste sources of energy. The company later uses the waste methane streams to power mobile modular data centers. Thus, leading to dual benefits, firstly, massive emission reduction of methane that is one of the most potential greenhouse gas. Secondly, it helped in establishing a low-cost computing infrastructure.
