US Regulatory Crackdown on Crypto Mining Energy Consumption: EIA Announcement
The U. S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) plans to collect data on a monthly basis to track the electricity consumption of crypto miners. This move is a reaction to rising concerns about how mining cryptocurrency affects the environment and how much energy it requires.
We're initiating collection of data regarding #electricity use by US #cryptocurrency miners.
We'll ask about their electricity consumption so we can better understand their energy demands.
👉https://t.co/gYpZgtiD6J pic.twitter.com/pQ9ULoLAAU
— EIA (@EIAgov) January 31, 2024
Electricity demand associated with U.S. cryptocurrency mining operations has grown rapidly over the last several years. EIA’s preliminary estimates suggest that annual electricity use from cryptocurrency mining represents 0.6% to 2.3% of U.S. electricity consumption.
This data is crucial, and your agencies should not have to rely on the good nature of the crypto or electric utility industries to obtain it
Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic legislators
Tracking Electricity Consumption of Crypto Mining
EIA successfully identified commercial crypto miners and regulated them to provide detailed information about their energy consumption starting from next week. The EIA intends to expand its data gathering efforts by seeking public input regarding the energy usage of crypto mining. As per the Office of Management and Budget, the EIA has requested and been granted an emergency clearance in order to create more accurate estimates of the amount of electricity consumed by crypto miners.
Recognizing that this emergency collection is experimental and provisional with the understood intention that EIA wants to build to a new standard collection
The Office of Management and Budget
Understanding Energy Demands in Crypto Mining
The EIA aims to comprehend better the energy requirements and electricity sources utilized in cryptocurrency mining activities. The considerable energy consumption associated with crypto mining has fueled passionate discussions within the environmental community, as some view it as an innovative energy application in specific situations. In contrast, others assert that it undermines efforts to reduce emissions and fight climate change.
Crypto mining entails validating blockchain transactions using computer hardware. In this approach, miners compete for block incentives by using computational power. The U. S. is regulating the crypto miners as they use a significant amount of electricity. Cryptocurrency mining can be energy-efficient in some situations. Still, the majority of environmentalists see it as a danger to attempts to reduce global carbon emissions and combat climate change.
The U.S. government is working to guarantee openness and responsibility from cryptocurrency mining firms with respect to their energy consumption in response to these worries. A number of Democratic lawmakers have already pushed major US cryptocurrency mining companies to reveal information about their energy usage.
Angel Marinov is the Managing Editor at Coinlabz. With extensive knowledge of crypto payments and blockchain use cases, Angel is a trusted source of accurate and timely information
