Bitfarms Counters Environmental Criticism of Bitcoin Mining and Grows with NASDAQ

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

The debate continues over whether bitcoin mining is wreaking havoc on the environment or whether it's just an overwrought criticism that makes for good headlines. Bitfarms Ltd. BITFBFARF , the largest publicly traded bitcoin mining company using greater than 99% renewable electricity, is surprisingly leaning heavily toward the latter end of the debate.

A recent Cambridge University analysis concluded Bitcoin consumes more energy in a year than Argentina. That same analysis suggested that if Bitcoin were a country, it would be in the top 30 energy-consuming countries in the world.

"Comparing Bitcoin to countries and ranking them does a great job of making people feel it's not only one of the leading sources of emissions already but is truly an outsized problem compared to the nearly 200 countries on the planet," Bitfarms Chief Mining Officer Ben Gagnon said. "Bitcoin has barely been around for 12 years. The data on emissions relating to climate change is measured cumulatively and goes back 270 years to 1750. That's 21 times longer than Bitcoin has existed.

"We take the overly conservative approach and project Bitcoins' current share of global emissions back to its inception and chart it historically with the cumulative amount of emissions. Taking this into account, Bitcoins' share of measured global emissions to date becomes incredibly small, only 0.028% — using this highly conservative approach."

According to the Global Carbon Project, 34 billion metric tons of carbon emissions were produced in 2020, accounting for nearly 620 times more than Bitcoin's current estimated average annual carbon emissions or approximately 0.16% of the globe's total emissions. But many people still have questions about how much bitcoin mining contributes to the world's total carbon footprint, even though everything living and every human activity produces emissions. Even renewable energy such as wind and solar has huge emissions associated with their production, installation, and when they reach the end of their productive lifespan and must be deconstructed or replaced.

Bitfarms President Geoff Morphy has pointed out publicly that his company is not burning any carbon to power its bitcoin mining operation as it's all hydroelectric. But he also has questions about whether Bitfarms can keep relying on hydroelectric power in the long run.

"As we expand, can we stay with pure hydroelectricity? We don't know. If we switch to some type of carbon because the world has an opportunity where there's surplus somewhere, and we can take advantage of that surplus, then we will," Morphy said. "We will likely always consume a lot of energy. In the scheme of importance, it's necessary to drive the decentralized economy."

Bitfarms Joins NASDAQ

Bitfarms, which for 4 years has operated blockchain computing centers powering the decentralized global economy, is now showcasing its continued growth by recently uplisting to the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol BITF. The company officially began trading on NASDAQ on June 21st and is now dual-listed on NASDAQ and the TSX.V. Bitfarms view the Nasdaq listing as a significant milestone following multiple years of company growth and development.

"We are the largest publicly traded bitcoin miner in North America using greater than 99% renewable electricity, for investors who are seeking exposure to Bitcoin and are concerned about environmental impact. We are one of the only companies that ticks both of these boxes. We have done so since our company's founding in 2017 and not just as a response to recent public pressures around ESG" Bitfarms founder and CEO Emiliano Grodzki said. "We are proud to be a leader in the industry in setting the highest standards for ourselves and our mining operations and uplisting to one of the most prestigious stock exchanges in the world. Having reached this milestone, we are even more excited about where it will take our company next."

Learn more about Bitfarms at www.bitfarms.com.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.