EU regulators should ban the mining of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the Proof-of-Work algorithm due to its energy intensity. About it FT Eric Theden, vice chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), said.
In his opinion, without the intervention of supervisory authorities, more and more green electricity will be directed to the extraction of digital assets, and not to replace carbon energy sources.
He noted that in his native Sweden, bitcoin mining has already become a “national problem.”
“The solution is to ban Proof-of-Work. The Proof-of-Stake algorithm has a significantly lower energy profile,” Teden said.
In November, the official, together with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Bjorn Reisinger, called for a ban on energy-intensive mining in the European Union.
“There are other mining methods that can also be used for Bitcoin and Ethereum that are estimated to reduce energy consumption by 99.95% while maintaining functionality,” they stressed in a statement.
The possible support for the initiative of the Swedish state institutions was announced in the government of Norway. They also referred to the “unjustified costs of electricity.”
Recall that in July 2021, the French regulator proposed to give ESMA the authority to control the crypto industry.
