Governments all over the world remain skeptic about cryptos for a wide range of reasons – from potential money laundering to terrorist supply. Another reason for officials’ concerns is that crypto mining consumes a lot of energy, contributing to the negative impact of human activities on the climate.
However, the European Union is not going to taboo the production of bitcoins and its brethren as long as the energy for it is generated legally. This is the explanation, given by the European Commission official Mariya Gabriel.
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EU’s Friendly Towards Cryptos?
On March 9, Gabriel released an official statement, in which she turned to the issue of energy-consuming nature of crypto production and clarified the position of the EU concerning the niche.
In particular, she said that there is no legal basis for banning bitcoin mining if it complies with European standard electricity laws.
“As mining of cryptocurrency is not an illegal activity, the Commission did not put in place any means to track it, so far," Gabriel added.
At the same time, the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society emphasized that EU acknowledges the global anxiety over cryptos, regarding mining practices.
Therefore, the organization will keep an eye on crypto mining to prevent greenhouse gases emissions.
Gabriel, however, added that there is no data about how much crypto mining is carried out on the territory of the EU. She emphasized that the most of mining practices are conducted in China, where electricity is considered to be one of the cheapest.
By the way, Gabriel is not the first top official who raises the topic of energy consumption boosted by bitcoin mining.
Earlier, the head of the International Monetary Fund Managing Christine Lagarde discussed this issue. However, she was more distrustful of it than Gabriel.
Lagarde, in her turn, stressed that mining is over energy intensive and it is consuming as much power as all G-20 countries.
