Cardano (ADA) creator Charles Hoskinson is warning that new recommendations by the US government do not bode well for Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto assets.
Taking issue with the recommendations of a new White House Office of Science and Technology Policy report that calls for the involvement of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) to create evidence-based environmental standards for the responsible design of digital assets, Hoskinson says the proposals could result in an outright ban of Bitcoin.
“[The] EPA and DoE are going to start talking to crypto companies to basically tell them to change the way that their cryptocurrencies work.
And which way? Well, these should include, ‘Standards for very low energy intensities, low water usage, low noise generation, clean energy usage by operators and standards that strengthen over time for additional carbon-free generation to match and exceed additional electricity load of their facilities.
Should these measures prove ineffective at reducing impacts, the administration should explore executive actions and Congress might consider legislation to limit or eliminate the use of high energy intensity consensus mechanisms for crypto-asset mining.’
In other words, Bitcoin should be banned. That’s how you read that.”
The report is a response to an executive order signed by President Joe Biden in March calling for “responsible digital asset innovation.”
According to Hoskinson, the US government can employ various strategies to achieve its objectives that could spell bad news for proof-of-work crypto assets.
“The White House is now basically hiding in page seven a report no one will ever see or read: ‘Hey Mia, nice thing you got there with proof of work but, you know, global warming bad. So we should ban it.’
And we will soft ban it by having the EPA and DoE come in and basically create standards that you can’t adhere to.
And then when you can’t, create some form of executive order or legislation to basically prevent you from being able to do it.
Or destroy your profit margins so it’s no longer profitable for the American mining industry.”
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