- The house committee on energy and commerce sent a letter to the four biggest crypto mining operations.
- The letter asked the companies to answer certain questions.
The House Committee of Energy and Commerce sent a letter to Four major and significant crypto mining operations, which are established in the United States, namely core scientific, Marathon, Digital Holdings, Riot blockchain, and stronghold digital mining.
The letter was concerned to know the power consumption by the companies and the ways through which each firm is reducing the impacts and how they make sure that their working is not pressurizing the energy grid or being a barrier to the climatic goals of the country.
So, the question is – are the companies ready and really that planned for the task? Could this task from the government of the United States be a productive and beneficial step for the industry? Or are they hardening up the actions to attack the crypto mining sector? Why only these four companies? Why now?
Elaboration of the case
In a recent announcement, the House Committee on Energy and commerce elaborated on the case of the aforementioned companies as:
“Blockchain technology ensures that the personal information of any user is kept anonymous and secure and the economy more structured. But, the power usage and hardware needed to back PoW-based cryptocurrencies may, in a few cases, generate some externalities taking the shape of injurious emissions and excessive e-waste.
According to a survey done by the Bitcoin Mining Council, the members are consuming around 66.8% of the sustainable power mix. This portrays a lift over the first quarter of 2022, data, and marks an estimate of 59.5% sustainable electricity mix over the whole Bitcoin market.
Questions of the US Government
The questions of the US government include:
- The amount of energy usage by each of the firm’s crypto mining facilities in 2021
- The source of energy used by services backing each facility also counts the energy mix of each.
- The part of the energy used which is counterbalanced with renewable energy credits.
- The number of days the firms cut down the crypto mining to balance the grid stability in the past year.
- The average cost per megawatt hour and per megawatt hour profit at each of the company’s crypto mining facilities in the last 12 months.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/08/21/what-did-the-policymakers-ask-the-miners-core-scientific-riot-and-stronghold/