It is no surprise that cryptocurrencies that are online currencies need a large amount of power to operate daily. Alarmed by this rise in power consumption, Sweden has recently proposed an EU-wide ban on mining these currencies.
This comes after environmental activists have been asking about the ecological effects of crypto and whether it is sustainable or not. In general, you need a lot of space to house these miners, and they are very noisy too. On top of that, they keep running 24×7, so they end up using a lot of power in the process.
The announcement also comes after China put a blanket ban on these new-age currencies, and exchanges are looking to move to other places. This means there could be a huge influx of crypto miners to Europe. This can put a huge load on the electricity consumption needs of the continent and also be detrimental to the environment in the long run.
Sweden urges the EU to set an example with its Earth-first type of policy or ask these exchanges and minters to reduce consumption by 99%. This will make them either relocate to other places or reduce either energy consumption.
But power companies are defending mining, saying that it will only use 2% of the world’s power in the next decade.
Relocation would mean that the global carbon emissions will remain the same, but the EU will not be a contributor to them then. With crypto and DeFi gaining mass acceptance and growing in popularity, it would mean that there will be new miners in Europe in no time. Sweden wants the EU to take steps to make these currencies more environmentally friendly in the future.
