After the Chinese government’s ban on Bitcoin miners, the USA was the most preferred country for miners who migrated to crypto-friendly countries.
After the miner immigration to the USA, Bitcoin took the first place in hash rate. In addition, US institutions began to express their concerns about the environmental effects of Bitcoin mining.
According to information The Block has learned from knowledgeable sources, a congressional subcommittee in the US will hold a meeting to examine the environmental effects of Bitcoin mining.
The US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee’s Surveillance and Investigations subcommittee will evaluate the place of the Proof of Work system in energy use and will listen to the witnesses it will identify on this issue.
The date and participants of the committee meeting are not yet known, but it is expected to be held at the end of January.
It is claimed that the reason for the meeting of the subcommittee on Bitcoin mining is the developments in New York state. Because, a source who attended the preliminary talks of the committee told The Block that the committee was worried about the miners moving to New York state.
To recall, the miners who came to New York settled in the old power plants located here. This situation caught the attention of some environmental groups and sent letters to the leaders of the House and Senate regarding the issue.
At the beginning of December, Senator Elizabeth Warren requested a report on its work from the mining company Greenidge.
Some local businesses and worker groups in New York have even gone a step further, writing a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul to be denied permission to use the city’s old fossil fuel power plants as crypto mining hubs.