EU Indefinitely Delays Vote to Ban PoW Mining

The debate over proof-of-work mining in the European Parliament has been delayed with energy FUD surrounding Bitcoin mining. The Markets in Crypto-Assets Directive, known as MiCA, was set for vote on February 28th. The agenda was to start negotiations between the body and the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, but ultimately it was delayed by the chairman of the Economics Committee Stefan Berger.

The delay is following a leak of amendments that many saw as a proof-of-work ban which gained a negative response from the public on Twitter. Sources told The Block that the point of contention was some late-stage changes that interpret bans of proof-of-work networks over the concern of energy usage. This directive has been in progress since 2019 and will now be pushed and completed in “two to four weeks, 14 March or early April.”

The overall sentiment from the bitcoin and crypto crowd seemed to welcome the delay as Seth Hertlein, the global head of policy for Ledger told Block that the “future financial competitiveness of Europe depends on getting MiCA right.” The postponement will give the EU more time to resolve critical issues, but how long that will take remains to be seen.