Is mining in the US in trouble?

American congressmen have drawn up an appeal to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a request to assess the eco-friendliness of the cryptocurrency mining process. In particular, we are talking about compliance with fundamental environmental laws on clean air and water.

Authorities note that the fast growth in the popularity of cryptocurrencies must be accompanied by an absolute understanding of the risks in relation to the environment. According to congressmen, the cryptocurrency industry should be responsible for environmental sustainability. To this end, the work of previously closed gas and coal facilities has been actively resumed. Both are able to provide the sphere with electricity and to take part in the fight against the climate crisis. The Proof-of-Work algorithm and the Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, Zcash networks in which it is used, are of particular concern to congressmen. They claim that one Bitcoin transaction in terms of resource costs corresponds to the monthly needs of the average American family. At the same time, the authors of the statement welcome the executive presidential decree on revising the government’s approach to cryptocurrencies and the willingness to impose restrictions on mining company Greenidge and energy company Ameren. The main goal of the developed measures is to reduce the negative impact of digital currency mining on the climate and to study in detail the energy consumption associated with this process. As an alternative, congressmen are calling upon to consider more environmentally friendly cryptocurrency mining technologies based on the Proof-of-Stake algorithm, which are saving up to 99.99% of energy.