New Policies Being Made By The White House To Address Crypto Mining Energy Consumption

The Biden administration is reportedly designing new policies geared toward reducing the energy intake and emissions footprint of Bitcoin (BTC) and various other PoW (Proof-of-Work) crypto assets.

To that end, the Principal Assistant Director of Energy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Costa Samaras, offered an in-depth look into the upcoming policies, pointing out that its important, if this is going to be a part of the countrys economic framework in any significant way, that the new framework and policies are advanced responsibly and work towards minimizing general emissions.

White House forced to take action as crypto industry continues to rise

President Biden has been routinely asked about his approach to cryptocurrencies and what kind of regulations his administration is planning to implement going forward. For the most part, he said that the main priority will be to try and understand these digital assets, which also include NFTs, in order to design effective and fair regulatory policies which can provide some semblance of control and safety without stifling creativity and technological innovation.

With that in mind, the President signed an executive order on March 9th, 2022, detailing certain timeframes, mostly within a 120 to 180 day period, during which numerous reports would be published with help from various other government institutions which can then collectively make an effort to understand the broader crypto market and community.

New policies for a new digital age?

The Energy Department, which sets several of the emissions standards that are likely to be discussed as part of the new policies, has not yet commented on the issue of PoW-based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

According to Samaras, there is a clear need to consider what the appropriate policy responses would be in a world that has shifted to PoS (Proof-of-Stake), or one which has some continuous mix of both PoS and PoW. This is because, he continued, PoW is designed to be energy-intensive, but it also bolsters security. Samaras is not entirely wrong either, as the upcoming Ethereum Merge will see the worlds biggest altcoin shift from PoW to PoS, thereby further illustrating the Principal Assistant Directors point.

Following the timeline of the aforementioned executive order, a report aimed at uncovering emissions, pollution, energy efficiency for various consensus mechanisms, and the potential rejuvenation of fossil fuel focused mining techniques is scheduled to be released this August.

There have been numerous reports of noise, local pollution, and older fossil generators restarting in communities, and these are not insignificant loads by any means, Samaras said. In any case, crypto mining has been a cornerstone of the industry for a long time, but with all the attention being given to the environmental impact of these mining efforts, many in the space are actively making the change to PoS, with Ethereum being the biggest example of this.