Approaching the heels of China’s ban of Bitcoin and Ethereum cryptocurrency mining within the nation, the heads of Swedish monetary and environmental safety authorities this month revealed an open letter to the Swedish and the EU governments calling to ban energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining.
“The social good thing about crypto-assets is questionable,” wrote Erik Thedéen, Director Basic on the Swedish Monetary Supervisory Authority, and Björn Risinger, Director Basic on the Swedish Environmental Safety Company, within the open letter (by way of The Register). “The patron dangers are important, and crypto-assets are generally used for prison functions. Crypto-assets even have a major unfavourable impression on the local weather as mining results in each giant emissions of greenhouse gases and threatens the local weather transition that should occur urgently.”
Sweden is among the nations that don’t closely depend on vitality technology by vegetation fueled by coal, oil, and different fossil fuels. 80% of Sweden’s electrical energy comes from its three nuclear energy vegetation (40%), hydroelectric energy vegetation, and wind energy generator, so at current Sweden is far greener than different well-developed nations.
Sweden’s energy consumption per capita was 11,800 kWh in 2020, which is roughly 50% above the EU common. Whereas electricity prices in Sweden are among the many lowest in Europe, they’re clearly not the bottom proper now. However the share of hydropower technology, the lowest-cost supply of electrical energy, is surging (identical to the share of wind energy mills), which makes the nation a goal for cryptocurrency mining farms that demand low-cost vitality. However that vitality may very well be used for one thing extra necessary.
“If we have been to permit in depth mining of crypto-assets in Sweden, there’s a danger that the renewable vitality out there to us will probably be inadequate to cowl the required local weather transition that we have to make,” the letter reads.
As such, the authors ask the Swedish authorities and the EU authorities to ban energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining, corresponding to Bitcoin and Ethereum, altogether. As a substitute, they recommend permitting non-energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining, however the reputation of the greener Chia coin forex has stagnated for months now. Additionally they write that firms with cryptocurrencies generated utilizing proof-of-work strategies (what BItcoin and Ethereum use), have been unable ‘to explain or market themselves or their actions as sustainable.’