European Union (EU) officers mentioned banning Bitcoin buying and selling throughout a debate on a proposal to ban Proof of Work mining in response to paperwork obtained by means of a freedom of data request.

In line with a report, printed by German digital tradition group Netzpolitik, officers from the EU went so far as suggesting that an all out ban on buying and selling Bitcoin (BTC) ought to be enforced as a way to curb its general power consumption.

Essentially the most worrying feedback from the crypto group’s perspective got here from a document that detailed the minutes from an EU assembly with Sweden’s monetary supervisor and an environmental safety company wherein officers urged that regulators stress the Bitcoin group to modify to a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism, as a substitute of its present energy-intensive Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism. A unidentified official within the dialogue stated:

“Ethereum began transferring [to PoS] due to its group…if Ethereum is ready to shift, we may legitimately request the identical from BTC. We have to ‘shield’ different crypto cash which can be sustainable. We don’t see [the] must ‘shield’ the Bitcoin group.”

One other unnamed speaker urged that the EU may moderately place a blanket ban on buying and selling any crypto belongings that used a PoW algorithm.

The reply to this query was redacted within the doc to guard the “ongoing decision-making course of,” but it surely brings consideration to the truth that the EU was severely contemplating such dramatic regulation.

When discussing the potential impact of an outright Bitcoin ban on buyers and retail merchants the officers had been largely unconcerned, claiming that every one Bitcoin buyers are totally conscious of draw back threat.

“Contributors in BTC are totally conscious of the volatility of the forex/funding threat. [We] don’t want further safety measures.”

This report comes as Bitcoin’s power utilization continues to attract consideration from environmental organizations and regulators. In line with the College of Cambridge’s Bitcoin Electrical energy Consumption Index, Bitcoin mining at the moment consumes roughly 139 terawatt hours (Twh) of electrical energy yearly. For comparability, all the UK solely used an estimated 265 Twh in 2021, in response to Statista.

On the finish of March, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen teamed up with Greenpeace to stress Bitcoin to alter its consensus mechanism to PoS, very like Ethereum intends to do later this 12 months.

The EU’s Financial and Financial Affairs committee lately voted in opposition to laws calling for a ban on Proof-of-Work mining. Nevertheless, these paperwork do present distinctive perception into the lengths that some EU officers are prepared to go to as a way to crack down on mining-related power utilization.

Whereas it seems that PoS cryptocurrencies stay protected from sweeping regulatory motion within the near-term, Bitcoin mining will proceed to be a contested subject within the EU.