Jack Dorsey-led payment firm Square is investing $5 million to create a sustainable bitcoin mine.

Jack Dorsey-led Square is investing $5 million into building a bitcoin mine that runs on solar power, teaming up with bitcoin technology company Blockstream on the project as a debate over crypto’s environmental impact intensifies. While the payment firm Square is backing the project financially, Blockstream is providing infrastructure and expertise for the renewable-energy bitcoin-mining facility. Both firms are working to show that clean bitcoin mining is possible. 

Bitcoin mining will be designed to function as a “proof-of-concept.” 

The new project will be developed at one of Blockstream’s existing crypto-mining sites in the US and be designed to function as a “proof-of-concept” to demonstrate that bitcoin mining can be sustainable. “We hope to show that a renewable mining facility in the real world is not only possible but also prove that Bitcoin accelerates the world toward a sustainable future,” Blockstream noted in a joint statement on Sunday. Jack Dorsey has argued that bitcoin encourages global moves toward sustainability and renewable energy, and the project is part of the digital payments company’s Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative.

#bitcoin incentivizes renewable energy https://t.co/KCe5bwdVs4

— jack (@jack) April 21, 2021

Bitcoin mining continues to remain a hot topic of debate. 

The impact of bitcoin mining on the environment is a hotly debated topic in the cryptocurrency industry. Each bitcoin transaction, purchase, or sale adds to the blockchain network, requiring a constantly increasing amount of energy. While bitcoin enthusiasts share Dorsey’s view and argue that bitcoin mining mostly runs on renewable energy, critics say that the environmental impact is detrimental and contributes to climate change, among other issues. Earlier, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that he would quit everything else and devote himself to bitcoin if necessary.