Ripple’s CEO Says Bitcoin Will Reach Full Potential Through Renewable Energy Mining

Ripple’s CEO Brad Galinghouse has clarified his stance on bitcoin, clarifying that he has not argued for a ban against it. Nevertheless, he outlined that one transaction with BTC requires about 75 gallons of oil and noted that the entire crypto space should aim at turning bitcoin mining into a clean energy business.

Garlinghouse on BTC’s Carbon Footprint

BTC’s rapidly expanding price garnered the attention of the world. While some were quick to praise the assets for its unique characteristics, others focused on the negative part of those features, including bitcoin mining.

The process of validating transactions, securing the network, and ultimately creating new coins, uses lots of electricity, which has raised concerns regarding the carbon footprint the asset leaves. Recently, names like Bill Gates and Janet Yellen were especially vocal on that matter.

Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, also touched upon this topic during a recent Bloomberg interview.

“Bitcoin as a payment mechanism is among the least efficient payment mechanisms that mankind has ever created because as the price of Bitcoin goes up, the energy consumption and the carbon footprint continue to scale aggressively. I think we can’t lose sight as one Bitcoin transaction is equivalent to about 75 gallons of gasoline being burned.”

Although he also praised bitcoin for its store of value capabilities and called the asset “exceptional,” his words provoked numerous BTC proponents, who questioned his math and his cryptocurrency support as a whole.

Garlinghouse Clarifies his BTC Stance

Garlinghouse, whose company is amid a legal case against the US SEC, was quick to respond to the Twitter attacks. He clarified he is not advocating that regulators should ban the primary cryptocurrency, as some users suggested in the comments.

As far as his math goes, he explained that he used the following information to receive the end number:

“Cambridge BTC Index’s avg March data (132.07 Terawatt hour annualized) / 365 = 0.362 TWh (daily avg energy). With March’s avg number of txns/dai (301,359), you get 0.000001201 TWh (avg energy/txn).

Using 0.49 Megatonne CO2/TWh (Stoll’s estimate – weighted avg carbon intensity is 0.48 – 0.5 CO2 Mt/THw) -> 0.000000588 Mt CO2/txn. EPA shows 112523894 gallons of gas produces 1 Mt CO2, so ~70 gallons of gas is emitted from 0.000000588 Mt of CO2.”

Ultimately, he urged people to focus on finding an adequate solution so that 100% of BTC’s mining could come from renewable energy, which would help the entire industry “reach its full potential.”