Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S. oil and gas company, is now using excess natural gas to mine Bitcoin (BTC). According to a recently-released report by Bloomberg, Exxon Mobil is now working with Crusoe Energy to use excess gas in North Dakota and mine Bitcoin. In this way, 18 million cubic feet of natural gas per month are used to mine Bitcoin.
Exxon Mobil Uses Excess Power to Mine Bitcoin
According to the report released by Bloomberg, the goal is to expand this project to other countries, including Nigeria, Argentina, Guyana and Germany. Furthermore, in the United States, the goal is to expand to Alaska.
It is worth mentioning that this is just a pilot program that relies on excess natural gas that would otherwise be burned. That means that energy that would be wasted is now being used to secure the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin miners are entities that are spread all over the world that use energy in order to secure the Bitcoin network. This can be done using different types of energy sources. Most of the time, Bitcoin miners rely on clean energy sources. However, it is also possible to use gas that would otherwise be wasted in order to mine Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has always been attacked for consuming large amounts of energy. However, we see that excess energy is now used to secure the Bitcoin network. Let’s not forget that Bitcoin has a market capitalization of over $840 billion at the time of writing and it is the largest decentralized blockchain network in the market.
According to data shared by Blockchain.com, Bitcoin’s hash rate is close to all-time highs. Indeed, the hash rate is currently close to 208.39 million TH/s. Bitcoin’s hash rate has been growing for many years and it continues to do so on a monthly basis. There were periods in which Bitcoin’s hash rate momentaneously fell.
However, these periods lasted just a few days or weeks. The market is turning very bullish on Bitcoin and how the virtual currency continues to expand all over the world. It is worth pointing out that El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender back in 2021, becoming the first country in the world to move to Bitcoin.
Other countries could start to do the same in the future. El Salvador, for example, has also different energy projects that could improve Bitcoin’s security, including a project to start mining Bitcoin using energy produced by volcanoes.
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