The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) urged the U.S. to conduct further research on the energy impacts produced by crypto mining. The White House alleged that crypto mining is a threat to the U.S. climate commitments and goals.
- The White House published a report pointing out that crypto miners should work on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. The report alleged that the U.S is hosting about 1/3 of the global crypto operations which have a relatively comparable electrical usage to all home computers in the United States, hence the claims of these crypto mining operations possessing a threat to the U.S climate change mitigation agenda.
- The report is a response to President Joe Biden’s executive order on cryptocurrencies released in March, to study their impact and analyze what positive or negative aspects they can bring up.
- This report has opened the doors to the possibility of banning bitcoin in the US, in a near future, given that blockchains with a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism can’t compete in terms of energy efficiency with other consensus mechanisms such as Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Moreover, one more reason for The White House’s claims is that researchers have found that the annual emissions associated with Bitcoin, are similar to those produced by the entire country of Greece.
- This document serves as an announcement of a “soft” ban on bitcoin by directing agencies and U.S departments to set standards higher than what Bitcoin could ever reach. “The Administration should explore executive actions, and Congress might consider legislation, to limit or eliminate the use of high energy intensity consensus mechanisms for crypto-asset mining”- the White House contended.
See Related: CCRI Finds TRON as One of the Top Eco-Friendly Blockchains
