Asheville – Buncombe County leadership wanted to impose a moratorium on bitcoin mining facilities. Following statutory guidelines, a public hearing was scheduled before the vote. When Chair Brownie Newman said a lot of people had signed up to speak, one could only imagine a long night of victims of fearmongering sharing the same hyperbolic sound bites over and over. Instead, the hearing was dominated by subject-matter experts who did not want the moratorium. Given the disparity between the opinions expressed when Planning Director Nate Pennington first introduced the subject and what these insiders were saying, holding a moratorium to get to the bottom of things was likely the best course of action.
When the idea of a moratorium was formally introduced to the commissioners last month, they were told that bitcoin mining complexes consume vast amounts of electricity, which would likely require the emission of greenhouse gases somewhere along the power chain. They were also told about large amounts of e-waste and loud noise from the mining farms, which perturbed neighbors 24 hours a day. Pennington only requested halting their construction for a year so staff could perform studies and determine where they might be harmlessly located. Thickening the plot, Pennington said bitcoin farms were already cropping up in the state, and some, like the container compound in Cherokee, were creatively working around ordinances.
Only two people who spoke during public comment last Tuesday had a different set of facts. One, Ken Brame of the WENOCA chapter of the Sierra Club, argued, “Bitcoin mines are an energy hog.” This is corroborated by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), which stated that bitcoin mining consumes 127 terawatt-hours per year. Brame said this was enough to power 900,000 homes, and RMI said it was enough to satisfy all of Norway’s power needs. Even so, Justin Orkney, who has expertise in demand response and now builds cryptocurrency mining facilities, said these places are time-agnostic when it comes to energy consumption. That is, they can be shut down at any time to prevent outages or rolling blackouts.
Another commenter, Craig Deutsch, who is the editorial project lead of Bitcoin Magazine, said bitcoin mining was like electric cars in that there are no greenhouse gas emissions from the machinery itself. This is correct because both typically get their electricity from the grid, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that, as of 2020, most electricity in the country was still generated by natural gas, nuclear power, or coal. RMI estimated that bitcoin mining is responsible for the generation of 25–50 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.
As for e-waste, Deutsch said cryptocurrency mining accounted for less than 0.1% of all e-waste. His numbers were somewhat dated, as he reported total annual e-waste generation at 40 million tons, and it is now up to 50 million. The last estimate of bitcoin’s annual e-waste, reported by MIT and others in March 2021, was 30.7 kilotons.
On noise, commenter Michael Reynolds said bitcoin facilities typically produce 95 dB. An article by Zack Voell in Bitcoin Magazine (June 2, 2022) agrees that this is the volume produced by 100 bitcoin mining machines, as well as the volume at which nightclubs operate. Regardless, he argues there are many methods of noise mitigation, including isolation, noise-canceling electronics, sound walls like those used for highways, and even hay bales.
Deutsch said the current media frenzy over the bad bitcoin mining facility design in Cherokee has overshadowed two other facilities in North Carolina that manage noise well. Another commenter, Dennis Fassuliotis, who is the founder and president of the South Carolina Emerging Technology Association, said noise problems are already managed by the county’s noise ordinance, and if exceptions or violations crop up, they can be handled on a case-by-case basis instead of by overhauling the county’s land use policy.
Kimberly Stonebraker of Cary, who identified as “a buyer, holder, and user of bitcoin,” advocated for more bitcoin mining on the basis of the joke that the United States banking system has become. Criticisms included grossly under-reported rates of inflation, a national debt over $31.46 trillion and climbing, “endless money printing,” bank failures, banks not retaining customers’ money in reserve, being “one rumor away from a bank run,” banks freezing customer assets or otherwise separating people from their own money, and more. That said, there are those who still believe investing in a volatile currency that exists only in electronic form is a greater joke.
Many words were spilled refuting what others stated about how computers mine bitcoin, and even experts disagree. Fortunately, this had nothing to do with the moratorium, which was approved 6-0, Jasmine Beach-Ferrara being absent.