Nuclear Powered Cryptocurrency Is The New Hotness?

Using Too Much Energy?  Hold My Uranium Dioxide!

The increasing carbon footprint of cryptocurrency, of which Bitcoin alone is currently producing an annual carbon footprint of around 79.04 Mt CO2, roughly the usage of Oman, and somewhere around Poland’s yearly usage of 166.40 TWh has been in the news lately, not to mention the electronic waste produced by burnt out components.  As well, China has completed banning cryptocurrencies of all flavours which has had a huge effect on the market; not to mention the market is so illogical that a hamster can do better making money at it than those considered experts in the field.

With all these reasons to suggest that mining crypto might not actually be a great idea, of course the market doubles down on finding ways to keep trying to milk money out of it instead of backing down.  Taking a page from Alberta, they are looking to nuclear power to help reduce the carbon footprint of a dirty industry.  That is not to say nuclear power is inherently bad, indeed it is one of the most carbon neutral sources available to us right now.  However if you talk to someone in an area where brown outs are commonplace, they would probably suggest different uses for the power generated by any new nuclear plants.

Alas, they will have to continue to stock up on batteries and candles, for Talen Energy Corp will be building a new BWP nuclear power plan in Pennsylvania specifically to power TeraWulf Inc Bitcoin mining operations and Oklo Inc. will be building a breeder reactor in Idaho to power hardware and hosting firm Compass Mining’s operations for the next two decades. 

These are just the first two examples of what looks to be our nuclear powered cryptocurrency future, for even with all these challenges it is unlikely people will willingly give up on mining any time soon.