Why are there eyes on NY Governor Kathy Hochul following the PoW crypto mining moratorium passed by lawmakers?

The bill has recently passed in the senate now looking to get signed and approved by governor Kathy Hochul. 

The New York State Senate has approved a bill concentrating on creating a moratorium on crypto mining of proof-of-work-based cryptocurrencies. Now the bill is seeking its way to the desk of Governor  Kathy Hochul to get its potential sign to turn into law. The bill is expected to enact a pause for a couple of years on mining of those cryptocurrencies either coins or tokens that use a proof of work consensus mechanism for its approval. 

Now, this should not come as a surprise that this enactment of mining includes on top cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC), and the first leading smart contract blockchain network Ethereum (ETH). Now, Hochul has about ten days during which she has to decide either to sign the bill or put a veto on it. 

Following the text presented in the bill, the purpose of this legislation is to stop all the crypto minings that are powered by fossil fuels that create high intensive carbon. The legislation further said that this halt will continue in the region until there will be a complete comprehensive report that would consist of the data and information about the impact of the mechanism on the environment. 

In legislation’s language, the bill has established a moratorium  on crypto mining operations that are known to use proof of work consensus mechanisms for authentication methods in order to validate transactions over their blockchain. This provides that these operations shall be a subject of a full review of the generic impact on environment statements. 

This would be the first of its kind bill in the state and New York will also be the first state that would curb the proof of work mining-based crypto assets. 

As per the Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index of Cambridge  University, the New York state accounts for about 9.8% of the overall bitcoin (BTC) hashrate of the entire country, which respectively ranks behind Georgia, Texas, and Kentucky.  

However, Ethereum (ETH) uses a proof of work consensus mechanism currently, that is soon expected to shift to a proof of stake mechanism in August this year. Due to this shift, the crypto asset would reduce the extensive energy that it used to use while operating earlier. 

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Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/06/05/why-are-there-eyes-on-ny-governor-kathy-hochul-following-the-pow-crypto-mining-moratorium-passed-by-lawmakers/