2. Hardware

2. Hardware:

Information about the climate impacts from the physical components that run the protocols for digital assets. This includes the embodied emissions of specialized hardware and cooling equipment used to mine certain cryptocurrencies, as well as the waste generated from this equipment needing to be replaced frequently due to rapidly improving mining equipment. This also includes potential mitigating measures and technology improvements to reduce the environmental impact from hardware usage.

New Green Energy can be paid for by Mining Bitcoin

The key take away when looking at Solar Bitcoin Mining is to design an application for energy generation and storage that has a dual purpose.

1. A long-term primary use for new solar energy generated & stored at utility, commercial, or personal scales. This should be called the primary load option.

2. Bitcoin mining is the alternative load option that can be run to recapture what would normally be excess waste energy. This alternative, 100% clean electric bitcoin mining load should be used to accelerate the new infrastructure investment payback.

Bitcoin mining should not be planned as the only energy load. It should optimally be used in combination with other loads to be an ideal incentive for new solar energy generation and storage around the planet.

When the accelerated break-even point is reached, Bitcoin mining remains as an optimal way to only consume waste energy.

Some important statistics about the lifepan of hardware needed for Solar Bitcoin Mining:

New solar panels typically retain 80 - 90% of their performance characteristics after 25 years of life, and could be used much longer or replaced when future technologies exceed the current bests.

The optimal battery storage arrays based on Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery chemistry (the most sustainable composition) can retain 80% of their performance after 15 years of solar cycle use.

And the latest ASIC processors being produced at the 7 nanometer scale will soon reach a 1 nanometer integrated circuit fabrication process. This is consistent with the whole chip industry.

A 7 nanometer chip is smaller than the tip of a finger and a 1 nanometer chip needs to be held with a tweezers. When these chips are mounted on printed circuit boards, PCBs, they make an assembly that is a very minimal amount of electronic waste. With free solar waste energy, the operator could chose to mine bitcoin instead of throw the energy away and still turn gains on a 10 year scale, maybe longer.

Future advancements in ASIC mining chip mounting & assemblies will lead to a zero waste ASIC future. We'll discuss these concepts further in Part 7. Future Developments.

Hardware innovations in Solar panels, batteries, and ASICs will drive greater efficiencies and progress in all three of these industries. The small, extra hardware needed for Bitcoin mining is insignificant relative to the hardware that is needed specifically for long-term sustainable energy generation and storage.