2-Year PoW Mining Ban Law Signed by New York Governor

• The state assembly approved the PoW mining measure in April of this year.
• Presently, the United States has the largest percentage of the global hash rate (37.2%).

On November 22nd, New York became the first state in the United States to prohibit proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency mining for two years after it was signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul.

Both the establishment of new mining operations and the renewal of permits for existing mining operations are prohibited under the PoW mining ban. The state will only allow new PoW mining operations to open if they committed to using solely renewable energy sources.

Similar Bans Possible in Other States

The state assembly approved the PoW mining measure in April of this year. And the state senate followed suit in June. Governor Hochul signed the measure into law after lobbying pressure and the need to reduce carbon emissions.

Bitcoin miners, along with those of a select few altcoins, are the most prominent users of the PoW mining consensus. When it comes to verifying transactions on a blockchain. It is often regarded as one of the most secure and decentralized options. The technique, however, has been plagued by controversy due to the large amounts of energy it consumes.

Presently, the United States has the largest percentage of the global hash rate (37.2%) for Bitcoin mining. The two-year ban on PoW mining may be very expensive and set off a chain reaction of similar bans in other jurisdictions.

While the proof-of-work (PoW) mining myth has been disproved many times, the proof-of-stake (PoS) mining community has been campaigning hard over the last year. Conversely, lawmakers have ignored existing research studies that show a significant portion of Bitcoin mining energy originates from green sources.