Erik Thedeen, Vice Chairman of the European Securities Market Supervisory Authority (ESMA), called on continental regulators to consider a complete ban on mining cryptocurrencies based on the PoW consensus algorithm.
The main reason for the ban, Eric Theden calls the growing energy consumption in the mining of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the Proof-of-Work algorithm, reports the Financial Times. According to an ESMA representative, miners may well continue to mine cryptocurrencies, they just need to switch to coins based on the Proof-of-Stake algorithm and similar ones.
What to do with a huge amount of equipment for mining bitcoin, the official did not explain.
Theden, who also serves as CEO of the Swedish Financial Services Authority, argues that bitcoin miners have become a “national problem” and have the potential to influence climate change:
“The solution is to ban cryptocurrencies from PoW. The Proof-of-Stake algorithm requires much less energy. We need to discuss redirecting the development of the mining industry to a more efficient technology.”
In Sweden, a significant proportion of electricity is generated from renewable sources, but, laments the vice president of ESMA, often this energy is spent on bitcoin mining. Whereas it could act to consumers of electricity derived from fossil fuels. As a result, Theden says, CO2 and other harmful substances into the atmosphere remain at the same level.
It is worth noting that now, according to the Digiconomist service, the annual energy consumption of all bitcoin miners exceeds 200 TWh. This is much more than the entire Sweden consumes (130 TWh) and is comparable to the consumption of a country like Thailand. The confirmation of one transaction in the network of the first cryptocurrency consumes 2,192 kWh.
In early January, the Kosovo authorities banned the mining of cryptocurrencies in order to cope with the consequences of the energy crisis.
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