NY Lawmakers proposes a crypto-mining moratorium bill

The proposal asks to establish a moratorium on cryptocurrency mining operations that use proof-of-work authentication methods to validate blockchain transactions.

New York State Assemblymember Anna Kelles is proposing a moratorium on cryptocurrency mining operations that use proof-of-work authentication methods to validate blockchain transactions, citing its enormous energy consumption as a threat to the state’s environmental and climate goals.

Kelles’s proposal asks “a comprehensive generic environmental impact statement review” in order to determine the social and economic costs and benefits and the potential public health and ecological impacts, such as electric energy consumption, water usage and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions and co-pollutants released.

“The continued and expanded operation of cryptocurrency mining operations running proof-of-work authentication methods to validate blockchain transactions – as it is written in the proposal – will greatly increase the amount of energy usage in the state of New York, and impact compliance with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.”

The bill is currently making its way through the state legislature after passing the state Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee last month. If successful, it could set a precedent for similar regulatory actions at federal level.