JAKARTA - European Union (EU) officials discussed banning Bitcoin trading, during a debate on a proposal to ban Proof of Work mining.
According to a report, published by the German digital culture organization Netzpolitik, officials from the EU went a step further by suggesting that an all-out ban on Bitcoin (BTC) trading should be enforced to curb overall energy consumption.
The most worrying comment from the perspective of the crypto community came from a document detailing the minutes of the EU meeting with Swedish financial watchdogs and environmental protection agencies.
According to the minutes officials suggested that regulators should pressure the Bitcoin community to switch to a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism instead of the current energy-intensive Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism.
“Ethereum started moving [to PoS] because of the community… if Ethereum can shift, we can lawfully request the same from BTC. We need to 'protect' other crypto coins that are sustainable. We don't see the need to 'protect' the Bitcoin community,” said an EU official who asked not to be named, quoted by Cointelegraph.
Another also unnamed speaker suggested that the EU could reasonably place a thorough ban on trading any crypto assets that use the PoW algorithm.
The answer to this question has been edited in the document to protect the “ongoing decision-making process.” However it brings attention to the fact that the EU is seriously considering such dramatic regulation.
When it comes to the potential impact of an outright Bitcoin ban on investors and retail traders, officials are largely unconcerned. They claim that all Bitcoin investors are fully aware of the downside risks.
“Participants in BTC are fully aware of currency volatility/investment risk. [We] don't need additional protective measures," he said.
SEE ALSO:
This report comes as Bitcoin's energy use continues to attract attention from environmental organizations and regulators. According to the University of Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Bitcoin mining currently consumes approximately 139 terawatt-hours (Twh) of electricity annually. In comparison, according to Statista, the entire UK will only use around 265 Twh in 2021.
In late March, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen teamed up with Greenpeace to pressure Bitcoin into changing its consensus mechanism to PoS, as Ethereum is aiming to do later this year.
The EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee recently voted against a law calling for a Proof-of-Work mining ban. However, these documents do provide unique insight into the extent to which some EU officials are willing to crack down on mining-related energy use.
While it appears that the PoS cryptocurrency remains safe from this regulatory action in the near future, Bitcoin mining will continue to be a hotly contested issue in the EU.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
