Category: Crypto

Server room with big data
Crypto
Posted by:

Will Riding the Crypto Mining Wave Only Lead to Wipeout?

In the past couple of years, multiple states across the nation have made various attempts to attract cryptocurrency mining centers at which the virtual currency is “mined” on a colossal scale — a process requiring a significant amount of energy — through legislation and business and tax incentives (covered extensively by ELM, including here and here).

After what seemed like increasing setbacks for the cryptocurrency industry, major U.S. banks are now boasting cryptocurrency trading desks. Therefore, regardless of some states’ earlier challenges in …

Continue Reading
Server room with big data
Crypto / Legislation
Posted by:

Cryptomining Faces More Legislative Hurdles in US

As cryptocurrency has increased its notoriety in the US, so has its demands on the US electrical grid. Indeed, the US is witnessing a constantly proliferating number of cryptomining facilities, which are large spaces – often former factories or defunct power plants – filled with computers using large amounts of electricity to “mine” crypto by solving mathematical equations as fast as possible. This drain on energy has been met with unease in some parts of the US, however, such as New York, which …

Continue Reading
Bitcoin mining farm. IT hardware.
Crypto
Posted by:

Challenging Crypto Mining with Greenhouse Gas Limits

About two months ago, a New York Appeals Court reversed a lower court’s dismissal of the claims brought by two public service organizations in the matter of Clean Air Coalition of Western New York v. New York State Public Service Commission, 207 N.Y.S.3d 221 (3rd Dep’t 2024).

In that case, the Sierra Club and the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York filed an action for declaratory judgment against the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) for its review of an application to …

Continue Reading
crypto mining
Crypto / Emissions
Posted by:

Crypto Mining Not Going Anywhere – Maybe Just Not How You Think

It has been a rough year for cryptocurrency mining. Just a year ago, the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing addressing the environmental effects of cryptocurrency mining, with a particular focus on the process’s use of energy and resulting high rates of emissions (covered by ELM here), but with a noticeable bent of optimism and openness from the presiding representatives who ran the panel. Millennial U.S. Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York even went so far as to declare: “With a multi-billion-dollar market …

Continue Reading