A recent Bloomberg Law report says the White House is analyzing the energy consumption of cryptocurrency mining before making policy recommendations to the Biden administration.
In the report, White House Assistant Principal Science and Technology Policy Director Costa Samaras is at the forefront of the analysis, leading a study that aims to achieve a better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrency mining while keeping the focus on consumption of cryptocurrencies. energy and emissions footprint.
Samaras told Bloomberg Law that:
"It's important, if this is going to be part of our financial system in any significant way, that it is developed responsibly and minimizes total emissions."
The study also plans to look at “reports on noise, local pollution, older fossil generators being restarted in communities” and compare the merits of proof-of-work consensus algorithms with proof-of-stake.
Samaras acknowledged that, despite consuming a lot of energy, the Proof of Work offered greater security assurance than its counterparts, indicating that the energy team was keeping an open mind while conducting the investigation. He also spoke of the need for “appropriate policy responses” to a world in which “some ongoing blend of Proof of Work and Proof of Stake” existed.
The White House’s approach stands in contrast to Greenpeace’s recent campaign, “Change the Code, Not the Climate,” which aggressively advocates for Bitcoin to follow Ethereum in moving away from Proof of Work to reduce the protocol’s power consumption. The campaign has made a number of dubious claims about Bitcoin consumption, using long-debunked reports to argue that Bitcoin emissions rise along with the currency's market price and could end up pushing global warming above 2 degrees Celsius.
