A ton has recently been made of the news out of Europe about a possible cryptocurrency mining ban. Having read through the report and seen people's responses and reactions, it seems that people are just looking at the title and running with what they see. What Europe is going through is highly complex and requires a lot of thought before reaching any conclusions. With that in mind here are the big takeaways and implications I have come to.
Europe in the last decade or so put all its eggs in one basket regarding energy production. Germany and others except for France wound down internal energy production and rather moved to import natural gas from Russia. When the Fukushima nuclear accident occurred European countries except for France also announced they were going to wind down nuclear energy production ironically when looking at climate goals the emissions from nuclear occur in the building of the facility not the energy production part further increasing dependence on Russia while also increasing emissions. As we all know Russia has launched a brutal attack on Ukraine leading to sanctions galore hitting them and their industries affecting Russia and Europe's gas needs.
The report from the European Commission occurred due to the impending energy crunches that Europe is almost guaranteed to face. Given all that is going on in Europe right now from Ukrainian refugees to energy issues this report and what it stated should not come as much of a surprise. The key comment made throughout this report was that these moves should be taken if demand outpaces supply then the governments should move to do this. Honestly I am not sure if anyone can argue otherwise.
Our world now revolves around power and connection to the internet keeping this in mind huge energy consumers that are not required to sustain life should be idealed when this occurs. For instance in Texas where I am from and where my family still lives whenever demand starts to spike the government asks miners to spin down and return their power to the grid. This relationship has worked very well and has gained a ton of allies in Texas. Another thing I think people are missing is that power in Europe is crazy expensive right now and also does not have the mining percentage as other places. Them needing to go offline to save lives is not something that will be detrimental and mess up the blockchain rather it would be such a great PR move for whatever firms are braving the high prices right now.
I know the idea and the way it has been presented has been scary but it could not be farther from the truth! At the end of the day people need power to live and if crypto and blockchain have to sacrifice they should glady do so.
Please know I am not a financial advisor and make sure you do your own research! If you enjoyed this article and would like to support me further below are a few referral links that if you used when signing up I would appreciate it! Also, follow me on Twitter @Cje95_
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