Square to Invest $5M to Build Solar-Powered Bitcoin Mining Facility With Blockstream

Financial payments company Square and bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream are teaming up to build a solar-powered bitcoin mining facility to show the world that bitcoin can be green.

• Under terms of the agreement, Square will invest $5 million in the facility while Blockstream will provide know-how to build and manage the project. The facility will be located at an existing Blockstream location.
• The announcement comes as the environmental impact of mining for the world's largest cryptocurrency has come under intense scrutiny. a development that reportedly has scared away some institutional investors and contributed to the recent decline in the price of bitcoin.
• "We hope to show that a renewable mining facility in the real world is not only possible but also prove empirically that Bitcoin accelerates the world toward a sustainable future," Blockstream said in a release announcing the project. For its part, Square tweeted that the venture will be creating a "public-facing dashboard to serve as a transparent case study for renewable energy and bitcoin mining."
• For Square, the venture is well in line with CEO Jack Dorsey's stated love of bitcoin. Earlier Saturday, Dorsey, who is also Twitter CEO, was quoted as saying "Bitcoin changes absolutely everything. I don't think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on."