Mining pools, which pool resources from individual miners to mine more efficiently and produce higher rewards, are also taking steps to go green. Some are joining initiatives that offer mining companies a chance to offset their carbon footprints.
One mining pool, PEGA, offers green miners discounted mining pool fees. It uses the fees other miners pay to offset a part of their carbon footprint – by planting trees.
“Bitcoin miners are one of the very few industries for which going green is an existential imperative,” says David Bungay, PEGA Pool CEO. “That is both a challenge and an opportunity,” he added.
“Very few industries are under such immense pressure from regulators,” Bungay said. “That is why crypto miners are currently the leaders in finding green tech solutions. He explained that the incentives for going green are higher in this industry than in any other.
For that reason, PEGA Pool and other miners are looking for ways to make a case for PoW mining by going green.
“We went with a dual approach. We are incentivizing green miners by giving them a 50% discount on mining pool fees. That is a significant amount in this low-margin business”, he added.
“Secondly, for miners that are not using green energy, we provide offsets,” he added. “We went with the simplest and the most impactful – planting trees,” Bungay said.
So far, the company has planted 84,000 trees and hopes to plant much more. The result is an estimated annual offset of over 2,200 tonnes of CO2. That number is growing by the day, Bungay said.
“We know crypto mining is essential for powering the decentralized financial system,” Bungay said. “We believe that more and more people will soon start to realize its role in the green economy.”
