Huge Win for Crypto: Proof of Work Ban Rejected In the EU Parliament!
On March 14th, crypto investors around the world all had a reason to celebrate. The project of anti-crypto law seeking to totally ban all Proof of Work (PoW) cryptocurrencies has failed to gain support in the EU Parliament. The right of Europeans to mine and use digital currencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) is safe for now, and a massive step forward on the way to widespread blockchain adoption has been made.
Proof of Work has been under constant criticism of crypto skeptics for a very long time. This type of algorithm, utilized in two of the most popular cryptocurrencies on the market — BTC and ETH — is notorious for consuming huge amounts of electric energy to operate. In return for energy consumption, Proof of Work cryptocurrencies can provide superb levels of security and decentralization.
What crypto skeptics fail to mention is that the mining of Proof of Work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is mostly done with renewable, green sources of energy such as hydro or solar power. However, this didn’t stop the Greens and Socialists factions of the EU Parliament from attempting to fully ban digital currencies utilizing the PoW algorithm.
Fortunately, the attempt has failed. But does that really mean that the future of Proof of Work cryptocurrencies in Europe is safe?
It’s important to note that the European Union is working on a wide package of crypto-related regulations called Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA). The ban of Proof of Work cryptocurrencies was simply a single proposal that some EU parliamentarians wanted to add to MiCA.
According to Stefan Berger, the member of the EU Parliament responsible for overseeing the work on MiCA, the Proof of Work ban was rejected because of a simple reason. According to Berger, the purpose of MiCA is to create a clear legal framework for cryptocurrencies as financial assets — all technological considerations would be out of place in MiCA.
For now, the future of PoW digital currencies like Bitcoin and Etheruem is safe, but the situation has not been fully resolved. Instead, the European Parliament decided to postpone work on regulating Proof of Work and crypto mining until 2025.
While crypto skeptics will almost certainly keep using climate change as a pretext to try banning digital currencies in the future, cryptocurrency users around the world truly have reasons to celebrate. Another attempt to thwart the global crypto adoption has been stopped, and the right of Europeans to own Bitcoin was secured.
But while the criticism of Proof of Work is overblown, let’s not forget that there are also other ways of mining crypto. Grand Time features a groundbreaking concept called Social Mining, in which the users of GRAND can mine tokens by performing simple tasks on social media!
