In any debate about mining, carbon emissions and energy efficiency should be a priority. With such a leitmotif, a hearing was held in the House of Representatives of the US Congress on the mining of cryptocurrencies, according to Bloomberg.
During the discussion, lawmakers cited data from a report according to which mining of Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2021 contributed to emissions equivalent to 15.5 million cars.
Congressmen expressed concern about the conversion of old coal-fired power plants in New York and Pennsylvania to mining cryptocurrencies.
The debate was attended by Bitfury CEO Brian Brooks. Former Head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) within the US Treasury and Binance.US emphasizedthat it is up to the market, not politicians, to evaluate energy use. He added that miners often come to the rescue of utility companies by providing regular demand.
Coin Metrics founder Nick Carter was surprised that industry representatives were absent from this hearing.
“It is a scandal that representatives of Core Scientific, Riot Blockchain, Marathon Digital, Greenidge Generation Holdings, Stronghold Digital Mining were not invited. […] It’s like hearing on electric cars without Tesla’s invitation. It doesn’t make any sense.”, he said in a comment. The Block.
Recall that the European Union called for a ban on mining on the Proof-of-Work algorithm.
Earlier, Intel announced the arrival of a “high-performance” bitcoin ASIC miner.
