Cryptocurrencies are increasingly present in all sectors of society, but to generate them requires a large amount of electricity, a risk factor for their value in a future that must focus on reducing emissions. The energy consumption for bitcoin mining exceeds the energy consumption of Argentina with more than 40 million inhabitants. This makes many potential investors reluctant to buy this asset.
In Spain, they sought an alternative to make mining more sustainable. The company Green Data Chain has opted for an unusual technique: they used the excrement of an animal farm to produce Bitcoin.
Founded in 2020, Green Data Chain is a fintech company based in Spain, dedicated to regenerative bitcoin mining. The company has a farm with 16 computers that are powered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by renewable energy from photovoltaic panels and biogas produced from animal excrement. The bitcoins produced by Green Data Chain have a green certificate and associated CO2 emission rights.
This is a sustainable solution in two ways. The reuse of pig excrement reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80%. Not only does it generate bitcoins without polluting, but with this method, the creation of each cryptocurrency is equivalent to planting 565 trees, as Green Data Chain’s CEO, Jesús Royo, explained to RTVE.
Green Data Chain has also launched the NCB token (Negative Carbon Balance) and an NFT (non-fungible token). The aim is for the NCB to become the market standard for CO2 emissions from bitcoin mining. One NCB is equivalent to 1 gram of CO2 offset. Meanwhile, the NFT is based on the incorporation of a portion of the world’s first mined bitcoin with a negative CO2 equivalent emissions balance.
Air pollution from pig excrement emissions has doubled in six years, according to the official 2020 PRTR pollutant register. In contact with the air, the ammonia in the feces favors the generation of polluting particles whose impact on people’s health is similar to that of NO2 emissions. In Catalonia alone, there are almost 10 million pigs, with Osona and Lleida being the regions with the highest concentration of pig farms.
