Blockstream, a blockchain backbone provider, has teamed up with Macquarie Group, an Australian international investment institution, to establish a unique trial for a Bitcoin (BTC) mining center with a mission to investigate carbon-neutral options.
Macquarie Group will participate in one of Blockstream’s enterprise-grade mining operations as portion of the trial venture, the firms said on Wednesday. This will enable Macquarie Group to identify new renewable energy possibilities that can be leveraged for further ecologically friendly Bitcoin mining projects.
With 44 gigawatts of capacity being established as of March 31, 2021, Macquarie Group is one of the biggest institutional investors in renewable energy assets. After successfully collecting $210 million in Series B funding, Blockstream has expanded its goals in the Bitcoin mining sector.
In parallel to the fruitful fundraising, the business announced the acquisition of the intellectual property of Spondoolies, a Bitcoin mining gear maker. As a consequence, the Spondoolies core team became a part of Blockstream’s recently established ASIC unit.
Significantly, Blockstream’s growing emphasis on Bitcoin mining drew a large investment from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who pledged $5 million toward a solar-powered mining center. Bitcoin mining gained significant public attention in 2021 year when Tesla CEO Elon Musk seemed to denounce the cryptocurrency amid worries that its ecosystem was unfeasible from an environmental standpoint.
Soon after, a public discussion over sustainably generated Bitcoin erupted, with industry advocate Michael Saylor hosting an industry organization made up of BTC miners. Musk seems to have moderated his position on the detrimental environmental consequences of miners, even going even further to reveal that SpaceX, another business he runs, has Bitcoin on its books.
The hashrate on the Bitcoin system seems to be increasing again after the sector was severely disrupted earlier this year by China, which essentially outlawed BTC miners.
