The letter states that there are concerns about the world’s environment, local ecosystem and consumer electricity costs due to the high energy and carbon emissions used in bitcoin mining.
On this letter Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Merkle (D-OR), Margaret Hassan (D-NH), Ed Markey (D-MA) Katie Porter (D-CA) , Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Jared Huffman (D-CA). The letters were sent amid a hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the impact of crypto mining on energy.
According to the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C due to cryptocurrency mining is under threat. The most common method of manufacturing crypto-assets requires a large amount of electricity, which leads to significant CO2 emissions.
According to Eric Theedin, director of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, cryptocurrency assets have a negative impact on the weather, as their creation emits a lot of greenhouse gases. This is worrying and there is a need to regulate crypto-assets.
The University of Cambridge and Digiconomist estimate that the two largest crypto-assets – Bitcoin and Ethereum – together use almost twice as much electricity in a year as the whole of Sweden. It is estimated that crypto-assets release 120 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year according to their current market value, due to which there is a significant impact on the environment. This has worried environmentalists around the world.
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