In a law that is said to be the first of its kind in the United States, New York has imposed a two-year moratorium on some forms of cryptocurrency mining.
Signed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Tuesday (Nov. 22), the law imposed the moratorium on crypto mining that is powered by fossil fuels and uses proof-of-work authentication methods, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (Nov. 23).
“I will ensure that New York continues to be the center of financial innovation, while also taking important steps to prioritize the protection of the environment,” Hochul said, according to the report. “It is the first of its kind in the country and a key step for New York as we work to address the global climate crisis.”
Activists have protested the environmental costs of crypto mining, noting that these operations can consume as much energy as an entire nation, the report stated.
In a letter posted on its website in April, the Business Council of New York State said it had several concerns with the bill, the first being that it will not reduce total greenhouse gas emissions.
“This legislation will result in the ‘leakage’ of both economic activity and greenhouse gas emissions from New York State, as such activities will likely shift to states with relatively low power costs — which are typically also states with higher power-related greenhouse gas emissions than New York,” the group said in the letter.
As PYMNTS reported in August, mining has gotten a lot of bad press in the last few years, and not without cause. For one thing, it uses an enormous amount of power.
Bitcoin, the first and largest blockchain, uses mining — also known as proof-of-work — as its consensus mechanism, meaning the way the blockchain is secured, new information is added to it, and new bitcoins are distributed.
Bitcoin proponents point out that much of the energy used now by bitcoin miners is renewable — especially since China kicked out the miners using its horribly polluting old coal-fired plants.
In April, California Congressman Jared Huffman and two dozen colleagues wrote a letter asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to explore the environmental impact of crypto miners.
The lawmakers said in the letter that efforts were underway to reopen power plants that burned coal or natural gas so they can provide electricity for crypto-mining computers.
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