- Cryptocurrency mining will come under house scrutiny for the first time next week
- A House Energy and Commerce Committee is meeting with crypto mining leaders to discuss the impact of cryptocurrency mining on the planet
- There is a worry that misinformation will plague the hearing
A House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing into the impact of cryptocurrency mining has been scheduled for January 20, a first such meeting on the subject. The Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the main body will see senators discussing the impact of cryptocurrency mining on the environment and industry representatives will face tough questions over how the cryptocurrency mining industry plans to tackle its ecological issues and also whether the benefits of cryptocurrency outweigh the environmental costs.
Cryptocurrency Mining Has Hit the Big Time…Unfortunately
The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced last week that it planned to hold a hearing on the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining, but it wasn’t until yesterday that a date was set.
Not much information has been released about the hearing, entitled ‘Cleaning Up Cryptocurrency: The Energy Impacts of Blockchains’, but cryptocurrency lawyer Jake Chervinsky tweeted that he had already been working with those who have been asked to attend:
Next week, the House Energy & Commerce Committee will hold the first ever Congressional hearing on Bitcoin’s energy use.
I’ve had the true pleasure of working with & learning from many of the top American bitcoin miners in preparation for the hearing. I’m excited for this one. https://t.co/PoB0VGB4O4
— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) January 13, 2022
The fact that a house committee has been scheduled purely to look at cryptocurrency mining has both positive and negative connotations: it shows that cryptocurrency mining has ascended to a level where it can no longer be ignored, but it has the potential to open up a Pandora’s box of misunderstanding.
Hearing Could Descend Into Misinformation-fueled Bloodbath
The House Financial Services Committee hearing on cryptocurrencies last month showed that it takes time for lawmakers to become accustomed to even the broader points of cryptocurrency, and there is a fear that next week’s meeting will be a chastening affair for an industry that had been plagued by misinformation and misreporting of data with regard to the impact of cryptocurrency mining.
Hopefully those representing the cryptocurrency mining industry will get a fair hearing and can prove two key things – that cryptocurrency mining is not as bad for the planet as the mainstream media likes to claim and that, at its core, it is, or will be, worth it.
