Argo and DMG Spearhead New “Green Hash Rate” Working Group for the Crypto Climate Accord

Plus, Updates on Renewable Energy Sourcing for Crypto Market Participants and the CCA Objectives

It has been about one month since we launched the Crypto Climate Accord (CCA). At this stage, we have already expanded the community of CCA Supporters to more than 40 organizations from across the crypto and energy sector and captured various insights through interviews with Supporters about how we can make progress quickly toward decarbonizing the crypto sector.

In light of the latest uptick in conversations around crypto-related energy use (sparked earlier this week by Tesla’s decision to no longer accept BTC payments for its vehicles until there is progress toward sourcing from renewables), we are happy to see growing industry momentum for the CCA and the importance of work underway by CCA Supporters.

For example, in exciting news earlier today, Argo Blockchain and DMG Blockchain announced they will spearhead a working group in support of the CCA to advise and develop a new “green hash rate solution” in the coming months. The green hash rate solution will likely include new open-source software that can be installed at crypto mining facilities in order to establish a more accurate baseline of renewable energy use among these facilities and prove progress toward full renewables sourcing over time in a transparent yet privacy-protecting way.

All organizations that want to get involved with developing and testing this green hash rate solution should come forward and raise their hands so we can include you in this work.

Eventually, this green hash rate solution may feed into a future, not-yet-defined crypto mining facility certification scheme that verifies progress toward complete decarbonization. Furthermore, we expect this green hash rate solution will likely be useful (with some modification) for application elsewhere — namely, the numerous companies that form supply chain networks for companies with RE100 (or similar) renewable energy commitments and want to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.

Separate from the green hash rate solution, conversations are underway with various crypto platforms/exchanges and crypto investment groups to make use of digital tools in development now (like Energy Web Zero) to procure renewables. There are several emerging concepts for how crypto platforms/exchanges and crypto investors/holders may use these tools to support additional renewables investments across the globe:

• Crypto platforms/exchanges source 100% verified renewable energy (or offer an optional feature to their customers similar to how many airlines offer carbon offsets at checkout) based on the estimated energy use with not-yet-built energy estimate calculators of the crypto that passes through their platforms/exchanges.
• Crypto investors/holders — from individual people to institutional investors — source 100% verified renewable energy based on the estimated energy use associated with their crypto holdings (using similar not-yet-built calculators) to support their environmental goals.
• Crypto mining facilities source 100% verified renewable energy based on their measured or estimated energy use.

We also updated the CCA’s objectives following constructive feedback from Supporters about how we can better clarify the aims, roles, and expectations of the CCA — in part to avoid concerns around the risk of greenwashing. The updated objectives provide greater clarity around what it means to become a CCA Supporter and provide a new CCA Signatory category for crypto participants that want to commit to 2030 decarbonization targets as follows:

• CCA Supporters are crypto and energy market participants that approve of the objectives and are involved with helping advise, develop, and scale solutions in support of the CCA. Becoming a CCA Supporter does not verify that a Supporter organization has already decarbonized.
• CCA Signatories are crypto market participants that make a public commitment to achieve net-zero emissions from electricity consumption associated with all of their respective crypto-related operations by 2030 and to report progress toward this net-zero emissions target using best industry practices. All Signatories also serve in the role of being a Supporter organization.

We applaud Argo Blockchain and DMG Blockchain in becoming the first CCA Signatories and making formal public commitments to decarbonize their crypto-related operations by 2030.

We invite you to join us in building and implementing new solutions to #MakeCryptoGreen!

To get involved with the green hash rate working group or join the growing CCA community as a Supporter or Signatory, please contact Doug Miller (Head of Global Markets at Energy Web) via doug.miller@energyweb.org.