White House To Release a Study on Crypto Mining in August: Bloomberg
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"It's important if this is going to be part of our financial system in any meaningful way, that it's developed responsibly and minimizes total emissions,"
According to Samaras, the team was looking into the economic incentives for miners to shut down during high power usage times when they could be making money by running machines nonstop. Biden's executive order mandated that the OSTP collaborate with other agencies and provide a report within 180 days that looked into how blockchain technologies would affect the environment.
House Democrats Issued an EPA Letter
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) invited the public to submit comments until May 9. A group of environmental groups, including Greenpeace and the Environmental Working Group, co-signed a letter warning of the potential "impacts of digital currency" and proposed measures to mitigate their impact on climate change. House Democrats issued an EPA letter a few weeks ago requesting that the agency looks into the potentially harmful effects of proof-of-work mining. Following that, more than 50 proponents of bitcoin mining wrote to the EPA, disputing some of the politicians' assertions.