Sweden wants Europe to ban Bitcoin mining
Otherwise Paris climate change goals become impossible to meet.
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Crypto mining is hitting the world pretty hard right now. Whether you’re trying to get a graphics card for your new gaming beast, or just care about the environment, you’ve probably run into concerns with crypto.
Well if so, you’re not alone according toEuronews. The directors of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Erik Thedéen and Bjorn Risinger have raised concerns about the country’s ability to meet climate obligations.
According to the directors, crypto mining skyrocketed in Sweden by several hundred percent between April and August. This matches up with what we’ve noticed in the graphics card markets in Europe.Especially in Germany and Austriawhere cards are going for more than double recommended prices, probably mostly to mine crypto.
They say the current mining ofBitcoinin the country uses as much electricity as 200,000 regular households, we’ve seen somepretty devastating power implications ourselveswhen it comes to transactions, so you can see why they’re concerned about not meeting their Paris Climate Agreement targets.
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They’re not the only ones. Directors of the biggest financial and environmental regulators in Sweden are seeking an end to proof of work crypto mining. This is how many popularcryptocurrenciesare minted, and involves mathematical problem solving which uses a lot of computing power. That could be a couple hundred thousand houses worth of power saved in Sweden alone.
Electricity prices in Sweden are relatively good, and thanks to efforts into renewable energy, the country is unfortunately attracting crypto mining operations. This will likely increase now too, asChina declared cryptocurrencies illegaland many will be looking for new locations.
The directors are also calling for Sweden to put a stop to any new crypto mining operations and to disallow any companies that are involved in trading or investing in crypto assets from claiming environmental sustainability, thanks to the massive amounts of energy required.
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Hope’s been writing about games for about a decade, starting out way back when on the Australian Nintendo fan site Vooks.net. Since then, she’s talked far too much about games and tech for publications such as Techlife, Byteside, IGN, and GameSpot. Of course there’s also here at PC Gamer, where she gets to indulge her inner hardware nerd with news and reviews. You can usually find Hope fawning over some art, tech, or likely a wonderful combination of them both and where relevant she’ll share them with you here. When she’s not writing about the amazing creations of others, she’s working on what she hopes will one day be her own. You can find herfictional chill out ambient far future sci-fi radio show/album/listening experience podcastright here.
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