Changes to the EU’s MiCA proposal to regulate crypto markets, suggested shortly before a vote on the package, indicate that a bitcoin ban is still possible. Despite the recent removal of language that would have banned energy-intensive bitcoin, some members of the European Parliament are now targeting “unsustainable” crypto-currencies.
The vote on MiCA takes place today in the European Parliament, many voices have been raised in recent days against a potential ban on proof-of-work mining in member states, consensus used by King Bitcoin (BTC ). In the midst of these voices, we find in particular Pierre Person, deputy of Paris who stands out in the National Assembly for his fight in favor of healthy regulation of our ecosystem:
(1/9) MiCa regulation will be voted on next Monday. As it stands, it definitively condemns the future of crypto-assets in Europe. By banning Bitcoin and Ether, by complicating the use of NFT and DeFi, the European Parliament is mortgaging our monetary and financial sovereignty.
— Pierre PERSON (@Pierr_Person) March 11, 2022
If MiCA were to prohibit proof-of-work mining in the territory of the European Union, it would certainly be a serious strategic error in our policies, and it would be damaging in the long term for our competitiveness. Only here, if the interpretation of the policies is still to be defined, the text does not mention prohibition, even if it is true that a point is confusing. Indeed, the text calls on the committee to be more clear, it wishes:
“… identify consensus mechanisms that could pose a threat to the environment with respect to energy consumption, carbon emissions, real resource depletion, waste, and specific incentive structures. Unsustainable consensus mechanisms should only be applied on a small scale. »
The text effectively highlights the environmental problems of this consensus. It highlights the use of fossil fuels for part of the mining and the replacement of the equipment used which leads to electronic waste, all of which could call into question the Paris climate agreements.
It is also possible that future regulations only concern large structures without worrying individuals mining at home. These can be considered as operating on a “small scale”, but these are only guesses.
Further on, however, it is mentioned that what is lacking in proof of work is a bias that is present throughout the industry in the broad sense of the term, and not only in the crypto-asset sector. It is therefore put forward that the problem must be dealt with globally, so as to transform our society in its energy consumption.
