Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, declared that the Bitcoin Mining Council was created out of the need of explaining the energy use of Bitcoin.
He mentioned that he started a collaboration with Elon Musk and eight North American miners with the goal of creating a loose organization that would publish energy usage data thus addressing the current problem of people criticizing crypto for not being environmentally friendly.
“It became pretty clear that bitcoiners have a good story, but it’s a pretty complicated story and we need to find a way to share our story,” Saylor said.
He confirmed that he got in touch with Musk and several North American bitcoin miners to talk about the energy usage of bitcoin. Saylor commented that “He [Musk] thought we would all benefit if we were able to publish energy usage and source of energy usage data.”
Currently, the crypto industry doesn’t reveal such data, which lets certain entities create their own models which may not be very good for the crypto industry.
The fact that this meeting was confirmed only after it had taken place was criticized by some, such as Great American Mining co-founder Marty Bent, who said that it showed a lack of “self-awareness.”
But the CEO of council member Argo Blockchain, Peter Wall, has commented that the group doesn’t work on changing anything about the bitcoin ecosystem but only focuses on environmental issues.
“I think Elon’s first-order ask was ‘hey, can we come up with a way to publish or [boost] transparency for bitcoin mining energy usage. I think the first step is, let’s come up with a protocol for us to publish energy information in a way that we can share it with the world and then work together to make sure that we pursue sustainable energy goals.”
Saylor also defended the decision, saying that if he and Musk were trying to secretly control bitcoin, they wouldn’t have confirmed the meeting happening in the first place: “Everybody in that meeting, including Elon, are passionate believers in decentralization.”
He added that “We need to make sure that people that are hostile to bitcoin and hostile to the crypto industry aren’t defining these narratives and defining those models and defining those metrics. In the absence of any good information or any response on our part, they will define those models.”
Source: CoinDesk.com