The Swedish Greens’ proposal is largely in line with China’s path: they want to ban Bitcoin mining and restrict investment until it is “environmentally sound”. Swedish power engineers disagree.
Heads of departments are concerned about the high level of electricity consumption by miners. Financial Conduct Authority CEO Thedéen Erik and Swedish Environmental Protection Agency CEO Björn Risinger are urging the EU to consider completely banning energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining using PoW (proof of work).
The heads of departments believe that the abandonment of mining and the transition to other methods will reduce the consumption of electricity for the extraction of cryptocurrencies by more than 99%. In fact, their proposal boils down to three points:
Completely ban energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining throughout the EU.
Stop the construction of mining data centers that use large amounts of electricity for work.
Prohibit companies from entering the market that invest in cryptocurrencies mined using PoW.
The authors of the proposal acknowledge that this could push miners to relocate to other countries and may not solve the global carbon footprint problem. However, they believe that Sweden and the EU should set an example for other countries and regions.
“Banning proof of work mining in the EU could be the first step in a global move towards greater use of energy efficient cryptocurrency issuance methods. It will also mean that our renewable energy is being used as efficiently as possible to support the transition to climate neutrality. ”
State-owned electricity company Vattenfall disagrees with regulators and sees bitcoin mining as an opportunity to balance the load on Sweden’s power grid. Henrik Juhlin, head of electricity management at Vattenfall, explained that in Sweden, electricity generation exceeds demand from renewable sources. According to him, the amount of electricity generated by wind generators or solar panels cannot be regulated. ; He believes that data centers can consume this surplus electricity and thereby balance the country’s power grid.
Yukhlin warned that a ban on cryptocurrency mining in the EU would lead the industry to move datacenters to regions that use dirty fossil fuels like coal. On the contrary, this will increase the volume of carbon emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Recall that the ban on mining in China, aimed at reducing carbon emissions and stabilizing the financial system, led to the fact that miners moved their activities to the United States, Kazakhstan and Russia, and in October the Bitcoin hash rate again reached the spring levels of 188.666 Eh / s. One of the significant people who drew attention to the carbon footprint of Bitcoin was Elon Musk, who refused to sell Tesla electric vehicles for “green” Bitcoin and wrote a series of tweets about the carbon footprint of cryptocurrency mining.
