The European Parliament voted against the crypto mining ban. Politics set new draft rules to “protect consumers and make mining more sustainable”.
Since China banned crypto, the U.S. became the global leader in mining bitcoin and other tokens.
Seems like the EU also doesn’t want to take down its role in the new digital economy. Recently members of EP voted against limiting the use of mined cryptos.
The whole aim of this voting was to decide whether the proof-of-work coins, which are mined by energy-dense computing, should be legal in the EU.
While crypto-assets are now out of any EU legislation, politics decided not to ban mining. But they also proposed some measures for “consumer protection and safeguards against market manipulation and financial crime”.
As for carbon footprint, MEPs have asked the European Commission to include crypto-assets mining in the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities by 2025.
“With the adoption of the MiCA report, the European Parliament has paved the way for an innovation-friendly crypto-regulation that can set standards worldwide,” said MEP Stefan Berger of the European People’s Party.
Some EU parliamentarians have asked to ban PoW cryptos because of sustainable energy development. But they also found that going to renewable energy sources could result in large usage of this energy by miners.
Sources: Euronews