Will countries ban Bitcoin mining due to environmental concerns?

[Leviathan.007]

I recently saw a topic and article where people are discussing banning bitcoin mining in new york city, It's not really surprising if I see some countries are doing the same thing for the whole country. bitcoin mining ban is profitable for the government because they can milk some money from the miner by getting tax from them but on the other hand, they have to supply some power for them and this can be hard especially during the summer when power usage increases also some governments have to use fossil energy resources to supply the power which is not good for the environment and this can be another reason.

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[Argoo]

Lawmakers in New York just passed a bill to ban certain bitcoin mining operations that run on carbon-based power sources. which means bitcoin mining isn't completely banned in the US. The ban is only on Proof of work algorithm that is done with carbon-based power sources that both consumes approximately  1,173 kilowatt hours and causes carbon emission. I think other source of power generation for this same bitcoin mining is permitted e.g solar energy

The topic of the prohibition of cryptocurrency mining, which at the same time uses the PoW algorithm, is increasingly found in the media, which quote high officials from various countries. We see that New York has even adopted a similar bill, which, however, still needs to be signed as a measure.
Our climate continues to change at a rapid pace and states are forced to take some measures to prevent these undesirable consequences. It is easier for them to make such prohibitions in cryptocurrency than in their industries, which need fundamental changes and additional investments for this. I think that such a ban can indeed be adopted in the future by different states.

[Reatim]

I think this will never happen worldwide , maybe there is a chance that there are many countries that will put this into Law but there will always other country that will stand supporting Bitcoin mining as they can see the potential from this than a threat .
But still we cannot predict this to happen until it comes close as the environment needs to be healed and if Mining will continue damaging this? then that is the moment that world will take this into actions.

[Natalim]

I think this will never happen worldwide , maybe there is a chance that there are many countries that will put this into Law but there will always other country that will stand supporting Bitcoin mining as they can see the potential from this than a threat .
But still we cannot predict this to happen until it comes close as the environment needs to be healed and if Mining will continue damaging this? then that is the moment that world will take this into actions.

But what I think this can be temporary only. I feel the Government will help to keep this Bitcoin mining continue to run, I really be expecting support and to find solutions in regards to environmental concerns like energy consumption. Some people just think straight that Bitcoin is a threat to the environment without seeing that there is a way to prevent it, which in fact, I don't think it was.

Well, it's up to them to decide. But what I think about this proposal couldn't get approval and possibly this will just end up discussing how to improve and lessen the environmental effect of crypto mining.

[stompix]

There is no denying that bitcoin mining releases a certain amount of carbon and contributes to environmental instability but look at what other industries are doing, mineral resource extraction, heavy industries contribute a lot to environmental pollution and cause serious environmental concerns. But I haven't heard any accusations about it, they seem to be trying to put the blame on bitcoin when it's only a small part of it. I agree with @The Cryptovator, those guys are just looking for an excuse to ban bitcoin.

You haven't seen any accusations?
You haven't seen thousands of people chaining themselves to the fences of factories, blocking access to mines, protesting every day in front of companies' offices?
Do you know what extra taxes are imposed on the extraction of raw materials for transportation on the energy bill?
Do you know how much money some of that pay in green certificates to keep producing stuff?

I just have to admire the level of basis some have here, after 3 years in which everyone was saying bitcoin mining is green, bitcoin mining is doing now with only renewables somehow everyone now is angry that a bill states the same as they were shouting, mine only with green energy or don't mine! What happened to those 80-90% percentages, where those just lies feed through laser eyes to the gullible masses for another pump?

The other thing is that some still want to compare bitcoin mining with some industries, let's compare bitcoin mining with car manufacturing.
Tomorrow, in two parallel worlds one of them stops, let's see the impact on the economy for each case!

Did you ever do any kind of research about the origin of energy used to mine bitcoin? Or do you just read articles written by people who know nothing about bitcoin and their job is just to create FUD? Another advise, go look also the amount of energy that the bank system and gold extraction required, and check especially what kind of energy they use, then you tell me if bitcoin is bad and not environmentally friendly  

Show me that "research" and I can show you 20 cases of large farms using coal and gas, and you're free to try and at least match the one's mining with renewables.
Do you have an example of mining farms using wind or solar? I have tens with coal!

As for the whole bitcoin vs banks..

Ok, let's compare it
Galaxy Digital (which is pro-Bitcoin) estimated the consumption of banks  at 263 TWh
Bitcoin Mining council estimated the bitcoin mining consumption at   247 TWh.

Been there, done that!

To all of you, stop trying to picture bitcoin as a thing that uses 10w and all those come from a windmill in Switzerland, it's not like that, a lot of energy is dirty, because it's CHEAP and that's all that matters for miners, it's also a bad approach to keep comparing it to banks, if Bitocin goes to 100k, the reward will triple, miners will put twice as much gear in place and the consumption will double, you're going to end up willing to delete your posts about comparisons.

The right approach is to acknowledge these facts and understand the economics behind them, the energy is consumed because it produces something that is valued enough to generate this usage, that's a basic law of a free economy, you can't have security trust and demand with nothing to compensate.

[Ale88]

Did you ever do any kind of research about the origin of energy used to mine bitcoin? Or do you just read articles written by people who know nothing about bitcoin and their job is just to create FUD? Another advise, go look also the amount of energy that the bank system and gold extraction required, and check especially what kind of energy they use, then you tell me if bitcoin is bad and not environmentally friendly 

Yes. I'm fully aware about the origins of the energy used to mine Bitcoin. But the general public does not know about this. Mainstream media is evil, so they will keep pushing the "high energy consumption" narrative in order to try to destroy Bitcoin as much as possible. Governments could be behind this, as they don't want people to gain true financial freedom. You're absolutely right that the bank system and gold extraction consumes a lot more energy than Bitcoin itself.

Most people believe what they're told (instead of doing their own research), so they will agree with a full mining ban just to "save the planet". So far, only China and the state of New York have an anti Bitcoin mining agenda. The vast majority of the world's governments is on Bitcoin's side. As long as the majority is supporting Bitcoin, there should be nothing to worry about. Just my opinion

The mainstream media will keep up with the FUD because that's what the majority of the people outside of the crypto want to read, many people think they missed this train so they just hope the whole crypto world will somehow fail. Of course writing that bitcoin uses clean energy is not interesting, so they'll keep lying.

[Next-door]

Bitcoin mining poses a major threat to the environment.

Did you know that as the price of Bitcoin rises, so does the vote for electronic waste? Environmental opponents will increase!

Bitcoin mining produces enough electronic waste. Which is calling for ‘growing conditions for the environment’. Such a suggestion is a study.

Investment in Bitcoin is on the rise. Mining is growing at an equal pace. All in all, the processing power of mining computer will soon become obsolete.
The fact of the matter is that as the price of bitcoin rises, so does the amount of electronic waste. This is according to a study published in the scientific journal Elsevier.n
Alex de Vries works as an economist at the Dutch central bank. On the other hand, Christian Stall, co-author of the report, works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Bitcoin mining is done through computation. Several studies have previously shown that this method uses enough electricity. A similar study a few months ago said that bitcoin mining costs about 1 percent of the world's electricity supply. That is why in the case of bitcoin mining, in addition to the unconventional energy, renewable energy, fossil fuel is also being used.

[Doan9269]

Do you think countries worldwide will ban Bitcoin mining due to environmental concerns? If not, why?

I don't really think this is possible for every country to ban bitcoin mining, the reason being that they know themselves that bitcoin poses less environmental disaster compared to other activities carried by government such as mining of natural resources, what i think government want is the power to regulate the entire bitcoin mining sector but their rule of power is limited to only tax payment from those minners.

If mining is banned, do you think Bitcoin will switch to PoS? Will it still survive being a PoW cryptocurrency?

The worst that might happen is to ban the bitcoin mining and if this is achieved then the alternative is to switch to renewable energy use, all this threat created by government is because of the full dependency on thier electric power supply for bitcoin mining, government can't be the determinant to using PoW or PoS.

[Lanatsa]

Do you think countries worldwide will ban Bitcoin mining due to environmental concerns? If not, why? If mining is banned, do you think Bitcoin will switch to PoS? Will it still survive being a PoW cryptocurrency? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

for 13 years of Bitcoin existence ? Bitcoin mining is banned only in selected countries and specifically few so meaning the question exaggerates the situation , and like what Loyce says above , it depend in taxations , how will a miner operates in place where the tax will take all the possible profits?
meaning there is no need to Ban crypto mining .
but also worldwide? Am not sure it will happen because look around , there are come countries now that adopted Bitcoin so surely they are not part of this worldwide banning if ever will going to happen right?

For sure those countries who do have banned mining or does have strict rules or policies would surely be reverted or something be ignored on the time that these miners would be paying up taxes.

Despite on banning it then they would surely allow it since they do know that they can really benefit out of it which is something a very common government behavior.
Since these things arent something that couldnt be pointed out easily then these actions or false calls or environmental issues would really come out which is something very
not surprising.

[fiulpro]

Yes and no
There are certain countries which would definitely not only ban bitcoins but also mining as well since some of them needs to take care of their environment urgently in some countries they do have a scope of letting miners sore the benefits of ' renewable resources ' but not many countries have adopted it, with cheaper electrical outlet and greener countries we would ofc have these places be the new hub of mining whereas the countries like China would try and put a halt on it because of not just the population but pollution as well. Therefore choose your country to mine intelligently if you are thinking of investing.

[SirLancelot]

I recently saw a topic and article where people are discussing banning bitcoin mining in new york city, It's not really surprising if I see some countries are doing the same thing for the whole country. bitcoin mining ban is profitable for the government because they can milk some money from the miner by getting tax from them but on the other hand, they have to supply some power for them and this can be hard especially during the summer when power usage increases also some governments have to use fossil energy resources to supply the power which is not good for the environment and this can be another reason.

Not surprising because this wasn't the first one and this won't also be the last one but I think this isn't bothering at all because the majority of the countries are still not against mining and if there are countries that banned mining, there are also countries which unbanned it, china for example. So, many times they ban and unbanned mining on their country.

If someone bans mining then they can't get a profit out of it because people will stop mining as they are also scared for the consequence if they continue and get caught out tho corrupt authorities can charge them and make a profit this way. About the power, I don't think they will be needing the help of the governments. All people are free to use a lot of electricity as long as they are willing to pay big for the bills.

[rby]

Yes and no
There are certain countries which would definitely not only ban bitcoins but also mining as well

Any country that bans bitcoin will definitely not welcome bitcoin mining. So if a country bans bitcoin, it means that it also banned bitcoin mining. But some countries might ban bitcoin mining but still allow bitcoin to operate. We need to ensure we differentiate between the two.

Bitcoin mining locations are subjected to the availability of power. Then power is  not monopolised by a single country. So, if one country bans bitcoin mining, miners would relocate to another country. I have read somewhere that q company in Kenya, a country in Africa sent an open invitation to miners to come mine with discounts in electricity bill.

This ban and relocation will continue until the whole miners began to use renewable source of energy. Until then, expect every real and unreal news targeted to defame bitcoin and discredit the enviable legacy of Satoshi.

[lalabotax]

This mining  an problem has been for several years before, right? Some countries do banning because it is harsh for environment, it is considered not friendly environment. We have seen that China also bans this mining, that is why many miners move to other countries to still can continue mining. And maybe his will continue to other countries that have similar problems of environment and powers.

[coolcoinz]

Countries will not ban bitcoin mining because every country is different and what one sees as danger, another sees as opportunity.
People who use this argument that bitcoin is bad for the environment are a bit like the EU parliament that voted on new anti car laws to reduce fuel consumption and such. They want to stop production of cars no matter how much co2 they produce. They want to make you buy electric cars and that's all there is to it. They don't care how much their private jets and supply trucks pollute the air. Those aren't going away, but your little car is.

[TimeTeller]

Countries will not ban bitcoin mining because every country is different and what one sees as danger, another sees as opportunity.
People who use this argument that bitcoin is bad for the environment are a bit like the EU parliament that voted on new anti car laws to reduce fuel consumption and such. They want to stop production of cars no matter how much co2 they produce. They want to make you buy electric cars and that's all there is to it. They don't care how much their private jets and supply trucks pollute the air. Those aren't going away, but your little car is.

You have a point on this. Some will really see this as opportunity for its people rather than a concern.
And yes, some industries are contributing more pollution than bitcoin mining.
But they are blind with the facts and they are just finding weak spots in bitcoin mining to highlight it.
But anyway, if one country totally closes the door with bitcoin, there will be others that are willingly to embrace it.
Just look at what happen in China, take note that it is a big country but mining doesn't stop from them.

[Oshosondy]

This mining  an problem has been for several years before, right? Some countries do banning because it is harsh for environment, it is considered not friendly environment. We have seen that China also bans this mining, that is why many miners move to other countries to still can continue mining. And maybe his will continue to other countries that have similar problems of environment and powers.

Yes, China did banned bitcoin mining, as at last year when bitcoin was at $45000, the price falled to $30000 at that time but the market bounced back, it was funny this year that China has one of the highest hashrates again after it got to zero after the ban last year. Even in countries, states or town that banned PoW mining, some miners are still having undisclosed mining rigs while as some countries wanted it banned, some wanted it legalized like Kenya.

[evichi]

Governments that mean well for cryptocurrency growth will rather aim for alternative energy for the mining of Bitcoin. Government itself are the greatest violators of green environment support since most of them collect royalties that permit emission of hydrocarbon gases. They allow royalties when there is pollution - oil/gas pollution. Unless the government have other mission against crypto, the proper thing is to emphasize on the use of Solar Energy, Wind Energy, etc. to power computers for the mining of Bitcoin (uses Proof-of-Work algorithm). Governments that understand the good values of crypto will not be in a hurry to advocate to ban Bitcoin due to mining using hydrocarbon.

[AicecreaME]

If it is about environmental concerns, it's so lame if countries will ban Bitcoin Mining. I mean, there's a lot of things already that are destroying our environment, pollution because of car smokes, smokes from factories, deforestation, overpopulation, and many more. Other miners stopped mining because of it's maintenance, bills, and taxes, but others still continue using hash pool to maximize their profits and lower the energy cost.

[Detritus]

Most recently, the state of New York (in the US) passed a bill to ban Bitcoin mining due to environmental concerns. Some time ago, the EU did something similar (although it came into law) making both investors and miners largely concerned about the future of PoW cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin. If FUD related to PoW mining damaging the environment persists (remember Elon Musk also criticizing Bitcoin?), then cryptocurrencies with PoW algorithms will be forced to switch to PoS altogether. Bitcoin will be the mostly affected since it's the biggest PoW cryptocurrency in the world. Growth for the pioneer cryptocurrency will stifle, forcing miners to close down their business for good.

Do you think countries worldwide will ban Bitcoin mining due to environmental concerns? If not, why? If mining is banned, do you think Bitcoin will switch to PoS? Will it still survive being a PoW cryptocurrency? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Bitcoin can never key in to POS and is never possible that countries world wide will ban mining, if Bitcoin mining is stop in Some country by law due to environmental concern then miners will have to shut down and move to another country where they can carry out their mining.

[kryptqnick]

Bitcoin switching to PoS won't find enough support. PoW ensures decentralization and validation of transactions, and it's not like financial industry doesn't use energy either. The way forward is not via banning mining (although I think some did that and some might do it in the future), but via restricting the usage of dirty energy sources like fossil fuels and gas, which impact the ecology very negatively. But the crackdown should be not on crypto mining in particular. It should be on all those who use energy sources which are not eco-friendly, starting with all those using them in big quantities. That would both be more fair to the crypto industry and a more efficient way of combating climate change.