A new executive order targeting cryptocurrency misses the purpose of its high energy consumption and ignores its value to consumers
Though the recent crypto crash has left investors smarting this summer, an even graver threat looms: misguided environmental policy. As Bloomberg Law reports, the Biden administration is “teeing up policy recommendations to lower cryptocurrency mining’s energy consumption and emissions footprint” in accordance with the president’s March 2022 executive order regarding digital assets. The emerging sketches of the executive order suggest that the administration will primarily focus on Bitcoin and its distinct proof-of-work mechanism.
But this betrays the administration’s fundamental misunderstanding of both cryptocurrencies and energy’s role in the U.S. economy. To properly analyze and evaluate the faulty logic of Biden’s plan, it is important to understand how Bitcoin works and why it consumes so much energy.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Discourse Magazine
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Jordan McGillis is a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute.
This piece originally appeared in Discourse