A European regulator has renewed calls for a ban on the cryptocurrency mining process across the Union and has expressed concern about the share of renewable energy that cryptocurrencies use. In an interview with the Financial Times, Eric Tedeen, vice president of the European Securities and Markets Authority, said bitcoin mining has become a “national problem” in his native Sweden.
Tedeen believes that the main method of crypto mining – the so-called proof of work – which is embedded in bitcoin, should be banned, and instead the industry should move to proof of stake, which uses far less electricity.
The first method, which is also used by ether, requires participants to verify transactions by solving complex arithmetic problems. In the second, the number of countries that approve transactions is far smaller. Ether is expected to migrate to it soon.
China already banned crypto mining altogether last year, and Kosovo did earlier this week. It is estimated to account for 0.6 percent of the world’s total energy consumption – or more than Norway.
One by one, countries began chasing bitcoin diggers
The problem with bitcoin is that it increases electricity consumption at a time when the world simply does not have enough
–
–
