New York Senate Passes Moratorium on Proof-of-Work Mining

The New York Senate passed a bill this morning prohibiting new Proof-of-Work crypto mining businesses in the state. As a result of the revelation, any new Proof-of-Work mining operations that use carbon-based fuel to power operations would be prohibited for two years. According to the bill, the state of New York will conduct a “comprehensive generic environmental impact” study of Proof-of-Work crypto mining activities. The law, which had already passed the New York State Assembly in April, received a 36-27 vote in favor in the Senate. For several months, legislators have been working to restrict the rise of crypto mining in the state. In June of last year, an earlier version of the bill called for a three-year moratorium on a broader range of mining facilities perished in the Assembly. Some critics of the present version of the ban, like Republican Assemblyman Robert Smullen, have called it “anti-tech.” In contrast, others claim it will hurt New York’s reputation as a crypto powerhouse. The New Bill The new bill stated that many cryptocurrency mining operations in New York had been mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum using the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm. The bill mentioned that some bitcoin mining companies had bought abandoned fossil fuel plants and had begun utilizing them at a considerably higher pace than they had previously done. Those enterprises had been essentially working as fossil-fuel-fueled ele...