Elon Musk said he's speaking with bitcoin miners about renewable energy

A tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk indicates he's taking steps to encourage renewable energy usage by bitcoin miners. 

In a tweet today, Musk said he spoke with bitcoin miners based in North America. During the conversation, those miners committed to publishing a plan for renewable usage, as well as disclosing their current modes of obtaining renewable power. They also committed to calling globally on other miners to do the same, according to Musk.

"Potentially promising," his tweet concluded.

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MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor said he convened the meeting. Saylor tweeted that the North American miners Musk spoke with have agreed to form the "Bitcoin Mining Council," which Saylor said would promote energy usage transparency to "accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide." 

Saylor said executives from Argo, Block Cap, Core Scientific, Galaxy Digital, Hive, Hut8, Marathon and Riot were in attendance. According to Saylor, they "decided to establish an organization to standardize energy reporting, pursue industry ESG goals, & educate+grow the marketplace."

Last week, Saylor said his "entities" collectively hold 111,000 bitcoin. He's continuously added bitcoin to software firm MicroStrategy's balance sheet and voiced his support for the network and cryptocurrency.

Musk was also once an outspoken advocate of bitcoin, adding it to electric vehicle firm Tesla's balance sheet, accepting payments in the cryptocurrency and touting its innovation in the payment system. However, he later halted bitcoin payments due to environmental concerns. At the time, he said the firm was looking at using other cryptocurrencies "that use <1% of Bitcoin's energy/transaction."

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Aislinn Keely is a reporter on The Block's policy team holding down the legal beat. She covers court decisions, bankruptcies, regulatory actions and other key moments in the legal sphere, putting them in context for the wider crypto industry. Before The Block, she lent her voice to the NPR affiliate WFUV and helmed Fordham University's student newspaper. Send tips or thoughts on all things policy and legal to [email protected] or follow her on Twitter for updates @AislinnKeely.