Bitcoin’s new puzzle: How to ditch fossil fuels and go green

By AMY BETH HANSON
Associated Press

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — For the past year a company that “mines” cryptocurrency had what seemed the ideal location for its thousands of power-thirsty computers working around the clock to verify bitcoin transactions: the grounds of a coal-fired power plant in rural Montana. But with the cryptocurrency industry under increasing pressure to rein in the environmental impact of its massive electricity consumption, Marathon Digital Holdings made the decision to relocate its computers to a wind farm in Texas. Many economists and environmentalists have warned that as the still widely misunderstood digital currency grows in price and popularity the process of mining that is central to its existence and value is becoming increasingly energy intensive and potentially unsustainable.