Vitalik Buterin – the co-founder of Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap and the primary competitor to bitcoin – has stated that he is not too happy with New York’s recent decision to end all crypto mining running on proof of work (PoW) modules.
Buterin: The Government Should Have No Say in This
Earlier in the month, New York announced it was going to be imposing a two-year moratorium on all crypto mining. While stations that had already set up headquarters in New York were allowed to stick around and continue their mining operations, any new companies that were looking to set up shop in the Empire State had to turn back and find someplace new.
This has caused a lot of controversy in that New York is primarily looking to end all proof of work projects, believing they are somehow causing the Earth’s atmosphere to experience irreparable damage. This has been a long-running argument in the crypto scene, and there are many out there that are fully convinced crypto mining is going to cause heavy problems for the world.
New York has been one of the most confusing states when it comes to crypto because while the state Senate is passing this new bill, the city of New York and its mayor Eric Adams have shown that they wish for crypto to be the prime focus of all entrepreneurs in the future. Adams has gone so far as to state that he wants crypto taught in public schools, and he wants the city of New York to be able to compete with Miami, which up until this point has been the main crypto arena for the United States.
In any case, Buterin offered his thoughts on the moratorium via social media. Posting to Twitter, Buterin commented that the state of New York had no right to determine what software people could use, and that it was stepping over the line when it came to its governing powers. He commented:
No government has the right to tell you what software to run.
But Ethereum Is Moving to PoS…
The interesting thing is that Buterin’s currency Ethereum has worked hard in recent weeks to move away from a proof of work module and is instead looking to transfer to a proof of stake (PoS). This will allegedly bring about a lot of change to the network. It is slated to make Ethereum transactions much faster. Also, there will be fewer gas fees that transactors will be forced to pay.
However, the big clincher is that PoS will potentially make Ethereum much more environmentally friendly. Despite this, Buterin says that it is not right for any government to step in and decide people’s financial futures for them and denying them the right to run certain software goes against the very principles of the crypto space.
Source: https://www.livebitcoinnews.com/vitalik-buterin-bashes-new-yorks-crypto-moratorium/