摩西-桑德斯水壩位於加拿大和紐約州之間，調節從五大湖流向大西洋的河流的水位。
這座已有 65 年歷史的建築也支撐著兩座水力發電廠和穩定的廉價、無罪的能源來源。
難怪比特幣礦工會會愛上它。
「我們使用的設施距離大壩僅一箭之遙，」Gryphon Digital Mining 執行長 Rob Chang 告訴 DL News 。
「最重要的是，我們幾年前購買了碳抵消信用額，」他說。 “我們的基礎運營不需要[積分]，因為我們的礦工使用水力發電，因此是零排放。”
“我們很容易成為目標——貪婪的比特幣礦工，他們的機器使用煤電來毀滅世界。”
羅布張
Gryphon 表示，它是一家負碳比特幣挖礦公司，這意味著它從大氣中清除的碳多於排放的碳。
它處於推動比特幣挖礦符合 ESG 的最前沿，ESG 是一種代表環境、社會和治理標準的投資方法。 遵守 ESG 的公司往往會吸引更多投資者、更大價值和更好的融資。
德勤 2022 年的一項研究發現，改善 ESG 績效的公司可以將一項關鍵的稅前獲利指標提高 1.8 倍。
華爾街公司也認同 ESG 方法，並提供數十隻有 ESG 品牌的基金。 具有可靠 ESG 資格的比特幣挖礦公司可能會受到此類資金管理者的青睞，尤其是在牛市中。
投資巨頭貝萊德和富達渴望推出自己的比特幣交易所交易基金，並使數位資產成為更主流的產品。
此外，Gryphon 準備作為與 Akerna 合併的一部分而上市，Akerna 是一家位於丹佛的納斯達克上市大麻軟體公司。
所謂的反向合併意味著 Gryphon 能夠在 Akerna 的納斯達克上市，幫助這家羽翼未豐的公司吸引美國投資者的資金。
破壞氣候的逃學者
但綠色推動背後還有另一個原因：比特幣礦工已經厭倦了被描繪成破壞氣候的逃學者。
「團結在某種類型的惡棍周圍總是好的，」張說。 “我們很容易成為目標——貪婪的比特幣礦工，他們通過使用煤炭發電來摧毀世界。”
根據《紐約時報》
4 月報道 ，美國比特幣礦工造成的碳污染相當於 350 萬輛汽油車造成的碳污染。
同時，聯合國智庫在 10 月發現，需要種植一片丹麥大小的森林來抵銷 2020 年 1 月至 2021 年 12 月期間比特幣挖礦的碳排放。
Bitcoin miners “likely fear being — rightfully — called out for consuming more electricity than the entire traditional financial system combined while not even returning the smallest fraction of the same level of utility,” Alex de Vries, a data scientist and financial economic crime expert at De Nederlandsche Bank in Amsterdam, told DL News.
Making Bitcoin mining carbon free won’t be easy, and neither will complying with the complicated requirements of ESG.
Companies and investment firms have struggled for the last decade to produce useful ways to measure ESG compliance. Unlike finance, where Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, put everyone on the same page, ESG investing has no industry standard.
Rare glimpse
Yet Bitcoin miners such as Gryphon are turning to independent organisations and global consulting firms to audit and certify their ESG efforts.
The idea is to assure investors, and regulators, that they are indeed curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
How Gryphon fares offers a rare glimpse into an issue that is bound to become more important as Bitcoin rebounds and more investors jump into the crypto market.
Founded in 2020 by Chang and Dan Tolhurst, Gryphon quickly assembled a seasoned team of executives from some of the biggest Bitcoin mining operations in the US.
The company’s chief financial officer, Sim Salzman, previously had the same role at Marathon Digital Holdings, a listed mining firm with a $5.8 billion market capitalisation.
Chris Ensey, Gryphon’s chief technical advisor, is the former CEO of Riot Platforms, another industry leader.
And Chang used to serve as CFO at Riot and as managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald, the 79-year-old trading and financial services firm.
From the outset, Gryphon was designed to have a zero carbon footprint.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2021, Gryphon said it wouldn’t even “contemplate” mining Bitcoin using energy that isn’t 100% renewable.
“Gryphon’s mission is to create the world’s largest fully integrated pure play Bitcoin miner with a zero carbon footprint,” it told the SEC.
Unlike older players such as Marathon and Riot, Gryphon is still a small outfit. It executes 1.2 so-called exahash per second of computing power — about 20 times less than Marathon.
The more hashes an operation can perform, the more chances it has to create a block and get rewarded with Bitcoins. One exahash equals one quintillion hashes per second.
Reverse takeover
Gryphon is bent on joining the big leagues. It told the SEC that it plans to become “one of the largest renewable energy powered data centres in the world.”
A key stepping stone is going public through its reverse takeover of Akerna, a publicly-traded cannabis company. Chang hopes the deal will close early this year.
The linchpin of his strategy was carbon-free power, and with its constant flow of water and hydro-electric plants, Moses-Saunders was the right fit.
In 2021, Gryphon secured a deal for the electricity. It also started purchasing carbon credits, which permit holders to emit greenhouse gases without counting the emissions as part of their footprint.
The company applies those credits to offset emissions from supply deliveries or travel to conferences.
Marathon’s view
Gryphon isn’t the only Bitcoin mining company interested in going green. Marathon claims to be 100% carbon neutral, with 58% of its energy drawn from sustainable sources.
“Marathon has become a strategic collaborator in optimising energy utilisation — both in the categories of renewable, green energy as well as in waste energy,” Marathon Chief Growth Officer Adam Swick told DL News.
Other public miners have comparable figures. Cleanspark claimed to be using 94% clean energy across four mining sites in its 2023 ESG report. The firm is also participating in renewable energy programs like Georgia Simple Solar to make up the difference.
Bitdeer, meanwhile, told DL News that three of its mining data centres — two in Norway, one in the state of Washington — were 100% carbon free, while its data centres in Tennessee and Texas were 60% and 46% carbon free, respectively.
These numbers are self-reported, Bitdeer told DL News, meaning they weren’t verified by a third party.
That’s a common problem in the industry, Chang said.
No industry standard
Because the industry is so new — and the emphasis on using renewable energy so recent — there is no set standard to measure a Bitcoin miner’s carbon emissions or renewable energy usage.
Some public companies, like CleanSpark or Hut 8, issue their own ESG reports. Others, like Marathon, collect the data internally and provide it upon request.
Canadian mining company Hut 8 told DL News that its own ESG figures had received third party assurance from global accounting firm EY.
Erin Dermer, Hut 8′s senior vice president of communications and culture, said that almost 72% of the firm’s high performance computing relied on renewable energy but only 4.6% of its mining operations did the same.
However, 40% of Hut 8′s total emissions were offset through renewable energy certificates and carbon credits in 2022.
EY noted in the firm’s ESG report that the absence of an established practice for Bitcoin mining carbon emissions estimates opened the possibility for different evaluations techniques, each with their distinct results.
Green Proofs for Bitcoin
Chang pointed to Green Proofs for Bitcoin, an initiative led by non-profit organisation Energy Web that issues ESG certificates to miners.
Launched in May, the non-profit looks at two metrics when evaluating miners’ sustainability efforts: how much a mining operation relies on renewable energy, and how much the miner contributes to grid stability through demand programs.
據該網站稱，包括 Gryphon、Argo Blockchain 和 DMG Blockchain Solutions 在內的五家比特幣挖礦公司獲得了 2021 年和 2022 年排放量的證書。
僅 DMG 證書與能源使用數據一起發布。 比特幣綠色證明為該公司授予了 96% 的清潔能源評分。
當被問及該證書是否有助於吸引更多投資者時，Chang 表示，自 2021 年底以來，Gryphon 就不需要籌集資金了——早在該公司獲得 Green Proofs 證書之前。
DMG 營運長史蒂文·艾利斯庫(Steven Eliscu) 表示：「由於這些類型的認證是新的，可能需要一段時間才能獲得直接經濟效益，而且仍有大量工作要做，以便綠色礦工因對全球脫碳工作做出的貢獻而獲得經濟補償。」告訴 DL新聞 。
儘管 Gryphon 做出了所有努力，但 Chang 和他的團隊能否在不依賴化石燃料或不損失效率的情況下擴大規模，還有待觀察。
雖然摩西-桑德斯工廠仍有發展空間，但張正密切關注美國、冰島或格陵蘭島的其他能源。
他的兩個標準：具有適當法治的安全司法管轄區和一致的清潔能源。
「我們可以採用標準組合——太陽能、風能、地熱能。 Hydro 通常是最好的，」Chang 說。 “但我很高興找到一座核設施，因為它和水力設施一樣好。”
Tom Carreras 是DL News
的市場記者
。
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