Sustainable Bitcoin Protocol Piloting a Waste Gas Methodology With Miner Crusoe Energy

This process still emits greenhouse gases but avoids methane emissions, a gas which contributes as much as 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and instead puts the gas to use. Crusoe claims that in 2022 it captured over 4 billion cubic feet of gas, avoiding about 509,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents emissions.

Ensuring that this gas would otherwise be flared, adding onto greenhouse gases, is key to the methodology. SBP wants to «ensure that using this waste gas is not perpetuating the problem,» whilst «recognizing that oil and gas will be used for many years to come,» said Brad van Voorhees, co-founder and CEO of SBP. «When done responsibly, utilizing this waste gas is actually really the ideal sort of energy transition process,» he said.

If the oil and gas producer could find a pipeline that would transport it somewhere else to be sold, they’d prefer that from an ESG perspective, Lochmiller said. If they producer can get market price elsewhere, the gas is not wasted, he said.

In February, the first transaction of SBC was completed, when Georgia miner CleanSpark (CLSK) sold SBC to digital asset investment firm Melanion Capital.

Unlike other environmental assets like carbon and renewable energy credits, SBCs are fungible. They do not represent a specific bitcoin that was mined using sustainable practices, but rather ownership of all the climate-friendly that are part of the protocol, van Voorhees explained.

«SBP has really created a mechanism to make the claims around how that [mining] process is done,» ensuring it is in rigorously audited with a third-party mechanism, and making the claim «independently tradable from the actual underlying bitcoin commodity,» which ensures that the mined bitcoin remains perfectly fungible, said Chase Lochmiller, Crusoe’s CEO.

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