Proposed Crypto Mining Ban in Norway Fails to Gain Support in Parliament – The majority of Lawmakers in Norway have rejected a proposal to ban energy-intensive proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining. The prohibition was proposed by the far-left Red Party, which also failed to gain support for raising an electricity tax on cryptocurrency miners.
The Norwegian parliament debated and rejected a draft bill prohibiting the minting of digital currencies centered on the proof-of-work principle. Only two other leftist parties, SV (the Socialist Left Party) and MdG, supported the law, which was introduced by the communist Red Party in March (the Green Party).
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“Obviously, the majority here disappoints us,” Red lawmaker Sofie Marhaug tells the E24 news outlet. She also stated that Norwegian society must establish its electricity usage priorities. Her party claims bitcoin mining is extremely energy-intensive and insists on prioritizing other businesses’ requirements as well as climate change goals.
However, as Marhaug pointed out, the majority in Norway’s parliament, the Storting, wants to put the market first and “send the bill to Norwegian electricity users.”
The Red Party also failed to gain support for a proposal to reduce the electricity charge for mining data centers, claiming that the Labor Party (Ap) and the Centre Party (Sp) had broken a pre-election commitment. The two parties had announced that mining farms will be charged a full electricity tariff.
While homes, many enterprises, and the public sector pay 0.15 kroner (about $0.02) per kilowatt-hour of power consumed, the industry, including data centers, pays only 0.0055 kroner per kWh.
The Norwegian government stated in February that it would aim to avoid enforcing a crypto ban, but that it was investigating alternative steps to reduce the sector’s electricity use. Norway stated in November that it is considering measures to reduce the environmental impact of bitcoin mining and that it may back a Swedish demand for a European ban on proof-of-work mining.
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Proposed Crypto Mining Ban in Norway Fails to Gain Support in Parliament – “Power is wasted just to profit individuals rather than being utilised for socially good objectives,” the three leftist parties declared. The parliamentary majority, on the other hand, has spoken out against the politically inspired discrimination towards mining data centers.
