Jess Summerhill holds a steadfast belief that his technology can alleviate the negative environmental effects of cryptocurrency production. Currently the Chief Technology Officer at Dnar, a company working to make cryptocurrency more accessible to West Africans, Summerhill recently envisioned a new way to mine cryptocurrency that he hopes will push the industry towards a greener future.
As a tech industry professional with over a decade of experience and a science fiction enthusiast, Summerhill felt drawn to the intangible and somewhat mystical concept of cryptocurrency.
He first encountered the world of digital currency in 2016, when a close friend sat him down to watch The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, a documentary exploring the “social and political impacts of the world’s first global and open-source digital currency.”
Summerhill was enthralled. Soon after, he funneled some savings into the only three cryptocurrencies available on Coinbase at the time: Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum. His timing couldn’t have been better. The following year, in 2017, Bitcoin’s value skyrocketed by over 1,300%, reaching an all-time high.
Excited by the technology’s prospects, he began to explore cryptocurrency mining, eventually collecting enough equipment to build a special computer capable of mining coins for him. But the computer was loud, hot and racked up his electricity bill, attributes Summerhill described as “not ideal for roommates” he was living with at the time.
Ultimately, Summerhill’s frustrations with the available technology combined with his entrepreneurial spirit led him to found Maven Miners in 2020. The startup, based in D.C., is currently working to design a more efficient process of mining cryptocurrency, which they hope can one day run entirely off renewable energy.
“I don’t want to speak prematurely, but when I talk to other people out there … no one is thinking of doing something like this at scale,” Summerhill said. “It has lower costs involved, better long-term investment, better environmental impact; just all around we think it’s the way the industry should go, and we want to spearhead that.”
Summerhill represents a growing number of individuals in the cryptocurrency industry that are grappling with the environmental impacts of mining cryptocurrency and seeking to find the solutions for tomorrow.
While the idea of making the cryptocurrency mining process more environmentally friendly cryptocurrency isn’t wholly original, Summerhill is one of the first to be seriously pursuing it.
Another company, Elite Mining, is further along in the process and claims to be better for the environment by capturing surplus energy from places like orphaned oil wells. The company is also developing more efficient computers that require less energy to mine cryptocurrency.
Ethereum, the second-most popular cryptocurrency, is transitioning to a 2.0 version in 2022 that will dramatically reduce its power consumption and negative environmental impacts.
These efforts come at a time when environmentalists are calling for greener methods of generating cryptocurrency because the process has primarily relied on dirty energy for years.
How cryptocurrencies devour electricity
Cryptocurrency is created through a complex process called mining. In broad strokes, specialized mining computers compete to solve complex math equations that unlock small amounts of new currency. These computers, located around the world, typically operate nonstop and require massive amounts of electricity to stay running and cool.
The mining of Bitcoin requires about 91 terawatt-hours of electricity annually — that’s more than countries like Finland, home to 5.5 million people, use in a year. As of December, validating a single Bitcoin transaction requires approximately 2,004 kilowatt-hours of …….