BREAKING NEWS: EU Parliament votes AGAINST a de-facto PoW ban

the EU Parliament voted against the Markets in Crypto Assets [MiCA] law, which implies that mining Bitcoin or Ethereum is legal.

While the rest of the world was reeling from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Elon Musk challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a one-on-one fight for Ukraine. The spike in petrol prices was one of the effects of the ongoing war, and it was also one of the most visible. With industrialization at its peak, the demand for oil and gas has never been greater, and Russia is one of the major suppliers, it was nothing short of a real-life apocalypse.

The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union have already put restrictions on Russian oil and gas imports, causing oil and gas prices to skyrocket. Surprisingly, more than half of the five million barrels of crude oil it exports each day is destined for Europe.

This emphasized Europe’s strong reliance on Russia in terms of oil. According to reports, the European Commission is working on a strategy to “make Europe independent on Russian fossil resources well before 2030.”

“REPowerEU will seek to diversify gas supplies, speed up the roll-out of renewable gases and replace gas in heating and power generation. This can reduce EU demand for Russian gas by two-thirds before the end of the year.” As per the European Commission

With Russia’s mounting threat to crude oil, Europe has increased its research and development of alternate fuels. Interestingly, the operations of Bitcoin, a proof-of-work [PoW] cryptocurrency, were once again jeopardized by this event.

Bitcoin and mining in Europe

On Monday, European Union MPs voted on a draft of the proposed Markets in Crypto Assets [MiCA] framework, which advocated a ban on the mining process. In its draft, MiCa, the EU’s legislative package for controlling digital assets, included banning the usage of cryptocurrencies powered by energy-intensive computational processes, often known as proof-of-work [PoW]. While it was a close call, the members have not yet prohibited mining.

The crypto assets will be subjected to the EU’s “minimum environmental sustainability criteria with respect to its consensus method used for confirming transactions, before being issued, offered, or admitted to trading in the Union,” according to the bill’s rules.

This allows cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are currently traded in the EU, to switch their consensus method from proof-of-work [PoW] to proof-of-stake [PoS]. Although Ethereum is actively working on this transition, it is unknown whether bitcoin will be able to do so.

This plan was received with strong opposition from the cryptocurrency community, however, EU legislators have long advocated for a bank based on PoW cryptos due to energy issues. Even with renewable energy, ministers are concerned that it will be diverted to PoW computing rather than the national grid for public consumption.

Now that the parliament has voted by a large margin against the de-facto PoW ban, there is room for additional discussion on regulating crypto-assets.

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