Swedish regulators call for a ban on cryptocurrency mining in the EU – Bits Media

The Swedish Greens' proposal is largely in line with China's path: they want to ban Bitcoin mining and limit investment, until it becomes "environmentally correct". Swedish energy workers disagree.

Department heads are concerned about the high level electricity consumption by miners. Director General of the Financial Conduct Authority Eric Thedeen (The idea Erik) and Director General of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency Bjorn Reisinger(Björn Risinger)
call on the EU to consider a complete ban on energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining, using PoW (proof of work). 

Department heads believe, that abandoning mining and switching to other methods will reduce electricity consumption for cryptocurrency mining by more than 99%. In fact, their proposal boils down to three points:

The authors of the proposal acknowledge, that this could push miners to move to other countries and will not solve the global carbon footprint problem. Still they think, that Sweden and the EU should set an example for other countries and regions.

“A ban on proof-of-work mining in the EU could be the first step in a global move towards greater use of energy-efficient methods of issuing cryptocurrencies.. This will also mean, that our renewable energy is used as efficiently as possible to support the transition to climate neutrality.".

State-owned electricity company Vattenfall disagrees with regulators and views Bitcoin mining as an opportunity to balance the load on Sweden's energy grid. Head of Electricity Management at Vattenfall Henrik Juhlin (Henrik Juhlin) explained, that in Sweden the volume of electricity generated exceeds demand from renewable sources. According to him, it is impossible to regulate the volume of electricity, generated by wind generators or solar panels. ;He considers, that data centers can consume this excess electricity and thereby balance the country’s energy system.

Yukhlin warned, that a ban on cryptocurrency mining in the EU will lead to, that the industry will move data centers to the regions, that use dirty fossil fuels, such as coal. it, vice versa, will increase carbon emissions into the Earth's atmosphere.

Recall, that mining is banned in China, aimed at reducing carbon emissions and stabilizing the financial system, led to this, that miners have moved their activities to the USA, Kazakhstan and Russia, and already in October the Bitcoin hashrate again reached spring levels 188.666 Eh / s. One of the significant people, paying attention to Bitcoin's carbon footprint, became Elon Musk, who refused to sell Tesla electric cars for “not eco-friendly” Bitcoin and wrote a series of tweets on the topic of the carbon footprint of cryptocurrency mining.