Cryptocurrency is back in the news, As the digital currency rebounded in value. However, it’s not all sunshine and roses with the medium, as regulators in China is looking to ban digital currency mining in the country.
The country’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) are lumping it with coal and other polluting industries, saying that the mining of it has “seriously wasted resources”. To that end, the government body shared a new plan to adjust the country’s industrial structure. This plan includes categories that are encouraged, restricted and eliminated. Unsurprisingly (and if you haven’t already guessed), Cryptocurrency is listed under sectors to be eliminated.
China cryptocurrency miners contribute almost three quarters of the world’s cryptocurrencies, but China says that they also contribute up to 10 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air. Generated from the from mining rigs.
Some of the ways China intends to push the ban includes increasing its electricity rates and issuing stronger environmental rules by the local governments. At the same time, the country is doing this slowly to reduce any havoc from investors who will cry foul after losing their money speculating in cryptocurrency.
If the rule comes into force, it’s almost a certainty that Chinese miners will be forced to move out from China and re-establish their bases elsewhere. At the moment, the paper published by NDRC is up for debate and comment by the public, with the consulting period ending on May 5. After that, the central government will decide if they will ban crypto mining in China once and for all.
(Source: South China Morning Press via Engadget, Nature Sustainability)
