The European Parliament has slapped down a proposed rule change that would have banned bitcoin mining in the EU.
According to Finextra, the Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee voted 30-23 to keep a provision out of the proposed Markets in Crypto Assets framework that require all cryptocurrencies to be subject to the EU’s ‘minimum environmental sustainability standards with respect to their consensus mechanism’.
This provision would have meant a ban on proof-of-work mining – something used by bitcoin, ether and Litecoin. The rule change would have required these cryptocurrencies to eventually phase out their use of proof-of-work and move to the less energy-intensive proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, a system used by many younger cryptos.
Despite rejecting the provision, the economic and monetary affairs committee has agreed to ask the EC to involve crypto-assets mining in the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities by 2025 in order to cut its carbon footprint.
The European Supervisory Authorities – the European Banking Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority – recently sent out a warning to consumers that many crypto assets are ‘highly risky and speculative’.
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