Europe plans to ban PoW-based cryptocurrencies (including bitcoin)

The European Central Bank has published a recent study in which experts criticized the Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism as posing a threat to climate change — researchers have proposed banning PoW-based cryptocurrencies.

According to the researchers, mining BTC and ETH cryptocurrencies uses more energy than some «medium-sized countries» such as Spain, the Netherlands, and Austria. Even the upcoming transition of Ethereum to PoS did not save the researchers from criticism, due to «unclear methodology, lack of details, and false data.»

Taking into account the «environmental damage «of PoW cryptocurrencies, the researchers proposed to completely limit the mining of all digital assets, as it is «very unlikely» that even the quality of crypto assets is compatible with environmental and social safety.

Obviously, the researchers' point of view would be supported by cryptocurrency skeptics who will meet in London in September. Thus, cryptocurrency critic Amy Castor said that the crypto policy symposium promises to give disgruntled skeptics the opportunity to express their negative opinions. The organizers plan to explain to politicians how wrong they are about digital assets and jointly discuss regulatory policy on cryptocurrencies. Members of state regulatory and financial agencies from the US and Europe have been invited to the event.