On Friday (September 9), Charles Hoskinson, Co-Founder and CEO of IOG, the blockchain technology firm behind Cardano’s R&D, explained why a recently released White House report paints a worrying picture for Bitcoin in the U.S.
It all started on March 9, when President Joe Biden signed the Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.
Then, on Thursday (September 8), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a report titled “Climate and Energy Implications of Crypto-assets in the United States.”
According to an article by The Daily Hodl, Hoskinson had this to say about the implications of the report:
“[The] EPA and DoE are going to start talking to crypto companies to basically tell them to change the way that their cryptocurrencies work.
“And which way? Well, these should include, ‘Standards for very low energy intensities, low water usage, low noise generation, clean energy usage by operators and standards that strengthen over time for additional carbon-free generation to match and exceed additional electricity load of their facilities.
“Should these measures prove ineffective at reducing impacts, the Administration should explore executive actions, and Congress might consider legislation, to limit or eliminate the use of high energy intensity consensus mechanisms for crypto-asset mining.’
“In other words, Bitcoin should be banned. That’s how you read that.”
He went on to say:
“The White House is now basically hiding in page seven a report no one will ever see or read: ‘Hey Mia, nice thing you got there with proof of work but, you know, global warming bad. So we should ban it.’
“And we will soft ban it by having the EPA and DoE come in and basically create standards that you can’t adhere to. And then when you can’t, create some form of executive order or legislation to basically prevent you from being able to do it. Or destroy your profit margins so it’s no longer profitable for the American mining industry.“
Below are a few reactions from the crypto community:
