Subscribe to our Telegram channel
Why bitcoin poses a threat to the world
Iceland wants to push out cryptocurrency miners because they consume too much of the country’s green energy. Prime Minister of Iceland Katr铆n Jakobsd贸ttir told the Financial Times in an interview.
«Bitcoin is a problem for the whole world… Data centers in Iceland consume a significant share of our green energy. The new proposal to increase the use of wind energy will be a priority for green industries to achieve carbon neutrality. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are not part of this objective,» said Jakobsdottir.
Iceland is one of the cleanest countries in the world. The country has managed to achieve this status by switching to renewable energy sources. Amid rising electricity prices and regulatory pressure in the United States, cryptocurrency miners are actively looking for new places to operate. The Scandinavian country has become one of them.
According to Luxor, an analytical company, miners consume 120 MW. This is much more than Icelandic households. According to the Prime Minister of Iceland, the government is now focused on reducing the Scandinavian state’s dependence on supplies from other countries. It is planned to achieve this by ousting cryptocurrency miners.
Earlier, Joe Biden’s administration made a controversial proposal to tax bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for miners who use powerful computers to protect cryptocurrency networks and verify transactions.
«Any firm that uses computing resources, whether owned or leased from others, to mine digital assets would be subject to an excise tax of 30% on the value of the electricity used to mine digital assets,» the US Treasury Department’s revenue proposal for 2025 reads.