EU officials considered Bitcoin trading ban to enforce proposed mining ban

European Union (EU) officials discussed banning Bitcoin trading during a statement connected a connection to prohibition Proof of Work mining according to documents obtained done a state of accusation request. 

According to a report, published by German integer civilization enactment Netzpolitik, officials from the EU went arsenic acold arsenic suggesting that an each retired prohibition connected trading Bitcoin (BTC) should beryllium enforced successful bid to curb its wide vigor consumption.

The astir worrying comments from the crypto community’s position came from a document that elaborate the minutes from an EU gathering with Sweden’s fiscal supervisor and an biology extortion bureau successful which officials suggested that regulators unit the Bitcoin assemblage to power to a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism, alternatively of its existent energy-intensive Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism. A unidentified authoritative successful the treatment said:

“Ethereum started moving [to PoS] due to the fact that of its community…if Ethereum is capable to shift, we could legitimately petition the aforesaid from BTC. We request to ‘protect’ different crypto coins that are sustainable. We don’t spot [the] request to ‘protect’ the Bitcoin community.”

Another unnamed talker suggested that the EU could reasonably spot a broad prohibition connected trading immoderate crypto assets that utilized a PoW algorithm.

The reply to this question was redacted successful the papers to support the “ongoing decision-making process,” but it brings attraction to the information that the EU was earnestly considering specified melodramatic regulation.

When discussing the imaginable effect of an outright Bitcoin prohibition connected investors and retail traders the officials were mostly unconcerned, claiming that each Bitcoin investors are afloat alert of downside risk.

“Participants successful BTC are afloat alert of the volatility of the currency/investment risk. [We] bash not request further extortion measures.”

This study comes arsenic Bitcoin’s vigor usage continues to gully attraction from biology organizations and regulators. According to the University of Cambridge’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Bitcoin mining presently consumes astir 139 terawatt hours (Twh) of energy each year. For comparison, the full UK lone utilized an estimated 265 Twh successful 2021, according to Statista.

At the extremity of March, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen teamed up with Greenpeace to unit Bitcoin to change its statement mechanism to PoS, overmuch similar Ethereum intends to do aboriginal this year.

The EU’s Economic and Monetary Affairs committee recently voted against legislation calling for a prohibition connected Proof-of-Work mining. However, these documents bash supply unsocial penetration into the lengths that immoderate EU officials are consenting to spell to successful bid to ace down connected mining-related vigor usage.

While it appears that PoS cryptocurrencies stay harmless from sweeping regulatory enactment successful the near-term, Bitcoin mining volition proceed to beryllium a contested contented successful the EU.