United States Senator Ted Cruz believes that his country should be using natural gas to mine Bitcoin (BTC) instead of flaring it. Speaking during Friday’s Texas Blockchain Summit, Senator Cruz asserted that Bitcoin mining can be used to monetize energy created through oil and gas extraction rather than burning it, arguing that there is “enormous opportunity for Bitcoin [...] to capture that gas instead of wasting it.” According to a transcription of the talk shared to social media by Coin Metrics founder Nic Carter, Cruz noted that half of the natural gas flared in the country is currently being burned in West Texas. “It’s being wasted because there is no transmission equipment to get that natural gas where it could be used the way natural gas would ordinarily be employed,” he added.