The White House today suggested that U.S. lawmakers and regulators could soon crack down on cryptocurrency mining because of its large carbon footprint. In a Thursday report, mandated by President Biden in an executive order in March, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said crypto miners should reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with help from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and other federal agencies. It proposed that the government collect more data on power usage from the industry, advance energy efficiency standards—and it promoted the “use of environmentally responsible crypto-asset technologies.” But the White House also went as far to say that if measures to make mining greener don’t work, energy-intensive crypto mining, namely Bitcoin, could be banned altogether. “Should these measures prove ineffective at reducing impacts, 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 report said.
Full story : White House: Bitcoin Mining Must Be Greener—Or US Should Ban It.
