BLOCKSTREAM, BLOCK TO LEVERAGE TESLA EQUIPMENT FOR RENEWABLE BITCOIN MINING OPERATION | by heidi

Taking the dedicated mining stage at Bitcoin 2022, Blockstream CEO Adam Back announced that his company, in partnership with Jack Dorsey’s Block, Inc., will be leveraging Tesla energy equipment for a $12 million bitcoin mining facility.

“The Tesla Solar PV array and Tesla Megapack will power Blockstream and Block’s open-source, solar and battery-powered Bitcoin mining facility,” according to a slide shared by Back during the presentation. “[The facility is] projected [to produce] 3.8 MW solar renewable power, 30 PH/s hashrate.”

A Tesla solar PV array would be a series of Tesla’s photovoltaic solar panels, while the Tesla Megapack is a large-scale, rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

Originally announced last year, the solar-powered bitcoin mining facility was described as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that bitcoin mining can be conducted using renewable energy.

“The facility will be a proof-of-concept for a 100% renewable energy Bitcoin mine at scale, with the economics of the build out — including operational costs and returns on investment — made open to the public,” according to a press release from Block, which was called Square at the time.

Blockstream is one of if not the largest Bitcoin infrastructure companies, offering a Bitcoin mining hosting services, the Liquid Bitcoin sidechain, the c-lightning Lightning Network implementation, a Bitcoin blockchain satellite network and more. Block has numerous divisions focused on advancing the Bitcoin ecosystem as well. Both companies will be contributing $6 million to the project, per Back’s announcement.

With this latest update, Back emphasized that he sees the project as a way to prove to the world that Bitcoin solves energy crises, rather than create them.

“Bitcoin … can act as a baseload … it can actually make projects more profitable and result in a bigger power infrastructure for the world,” Back said. “Basically, Bitcoin should be the funding model to drive expansion of power infrastructure.”