New Report Casts Fears Over Bitcoin Mining

The energy usage of proof-of-work mining, which crypto king bitcoin uses, has been highly criticized since the Biden Administration took over.

This was made even more apparent thanks to a new report on crypto’s energy usage by The White House Office of Science and Technology.

A Concerning Report

The report was created per President Biden’s March executive order to explore crypto and the possibility of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The report’s goal is simple: examine crypto’s impact on the environment and America’s climate change goals.

Unfortunately, their findings were not great for us crypto enthusiasts.

The report singled out bitcoin mining as detrimental to America’s environmental goals. This isn’t surprising, considering the prevailing narrative around bitcoin mining, but it still is not what you want to see.

The report’s stance on crypto’s impact on electrical grids, in which it is argued that crypto mining puts undue stress on the grids and could raise consumer electrical costs, was slightly more surprising. Miners argue that by providing a base level of electricity demand, they actually make electrical grids more reliable. The report was unconvinced of this argument.

Some Good News

Thankfully, the report wasn’t all bad.

The report’s final section discussed crypto’s potential to assist climate efforts through vented methane equipment. Basically, miners that power themselves through methane-capturing machines are helpful to the environment.

It’s not much, but it does provide some guidance going forward on what the U.S. government wants to see from crypto miners.