Governor Kathy Hochul signed the prisoner of war moratorium bill into law on November. 22, nearly four months when the bill was approved by the state senate.
New York governor Kathy Hochul signed the proof-of-work (PoW) mining moratorium into law on November. 22, creating it the first state in America to ban any captive crypto mining activity for two years.
The pow mining moratorium won't solely require new mining operations however conjointly refuse the renewal of licenses to those that are already operating within the state. Any new captive mining operation within the state may only operate if it uses 100% renewable energy.
The PoW mining bill was initial elapsed the state assembly in April earlier this year and later got the nod of the State Senate in June. The bill was finally signed into law by governor Huchkul because of pressure from lobbyists and to fulfill its carbon emissions targets. Huchkul wrote:
“I will ensure that New York continues to be the center of financial innovation, while also taking important steps to prioritize the protection of our environment,”
PoW mining accord is predominantly used by Bitcoin miners and many different altcoins. it's thought of one of the safest and most localised ways that of authenticating a transaction on a blockchain. However, the observe has been marred by controversies over its high quantity of energy consumption.
The united states presently sits at the highest of Bitcoin mining hash rate share by country, with 37.8% of Bitcoin network hash rate coming back from the U.S. The biennial moratorium on pow mining will prove pricey and even produce a effect for different states to follow on an analogous path.
Blockchain advocacy group Chamber of Digital Commerce referred to as out the false narrative in a Twitter post:
“The state’s argument the mining industry’s energy use is exponentially beyond other industries is blatantly false. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requires NY greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by 85% and achieve net zero emissions in all sectors by 2050.”
The pow mining FUD is nothing new and has been debunked many times over, however, there has been a big lobbying effort over the past year, especially from the proponents of proof-of-stake (PoS) mining. Greenpeace and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen has been cause for a change within the Bitcoin code.
Lawmakers, on the other hand, have handily sidelined on the market analysis reports that a big chunk of Bitcoin mining energy comes from renewable sources. Bitcoin mining council report highlighted that over hour of the electricity consumption by the BTC network comes from clean sources.
European crypto regulators had proposed the same pow ban in their Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislative. However, proponents of outlawing operations with PoW-based digital assets couldn't muster enough support, which means that mica legislation was passed without such a ban.
( Prashant Jha, Cointelegraph, 2022 )