Conspicuous energy consumption is a feature of the Bitcoin model, rather than a flaw, according to a crypto-miner defending the power-guzzling activity.
Zach Bradford, chief executive of publicly traded Bitcoin miner CleanSpark, waded into the debate sparked by the Ethereum Merge, the shift from proof of work to proof of stake, which could see an order of magnitude reduction in the power consumed by the rival cryptocurrency network. "Proof of work, and the energy it uses, is a feature and not a flaw. There is no CEO of Bitcoin, it is fully decentralized and really proof of work is the only good way to truly secure the blockchain without an overseer. That has value because Bitcoin is used worldwide as a currency without somebody changing the mechanism," he said. While power consumption is central to Bitcoin, Bradford argued, the carbon emissions resulting from power generation are not such a problem for ClearSpark as the crypto-miner uses 90 percent carbon-free power. Nuclear power made up a large chunk of that, he said. Bradford also contends that even though there was an energy shortage globally, his company's consumption was justified in that ClearSpark's facilities are located in "grid edge areas" where there is excess electricity, such as the US state of Georgia.
All this seems reasonable enough until it meets a nasty tussle with evidence. Claims that Bitcoin, and the blockchain on which it relies, is fully decentralized were brought into question by
a report commissioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
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