Gamer
For a long time, cryptocurrency was bad news for PC gamers since “mining hardware” centred on high-end consumer graphics cards caused a severe shortage of GPUs. The environmental effects of crypto mining are exacerbated by the fact that huge amounts of energy are used in the production of digital money. After years of inaction on the part of the United States government, Vice President Joe Biden has proposed a hefty tax on the use of electricity in cryptocurrency mining.
Biden proposed his plan to Congress straight out in the open today. The DAME Act, which stands for the Digital Asset Mining Energy Excise Tax, seems like something Sam Spade might write if he decided to give up being a private investigator and instead run for the Senate. DAME’s result would be a massive 30% tax on the energy used for cryptocurrency mining due to the environmental impact of electrical energy generation and higher energy expenses for everyone.
In addition to these well-known drawbacks, the proposal notes that “cryptomining does not generate the regional and national economic benefits normally associated with organisations using comparable quantities of electrical energy.” “Instead, the energy is put towards producing digital possessions whose wider social benefits are still in the future at best.” In a statement on the official White House website, the administration acknowledges that by 2022, cryptocurrency mining would consume third-most electricity behind televisions and lights. According to some estimates, global bitcoin energy output might reach 240 terawatt-hours each year. This is about equivalent to the amount of electricity used by the whole country of Australia in a single year.
The DAME Act is not the first time the federal government of the United States has sought to pass legislation to either limit or expand cryptocurrency mining. While cryptocurrency laws are still developing, the federal government treats cryptocurrencies as either securities or goods, making them subject to taxation depending on their value in U.S. dollars. The Bank Secrecy Act and other federal money regulations apply to cryptocurrency exchanges. Creating a more comprehensive national strategy on cryptocurrency regulation has been an issue for the Biden administration. Bloomberg Law reports that many cryptocurrency-related bills have been introduced in the House and Senate.
The bitcoin market also includes several private states. Some have limited their involvement to only defining the terms of money transfer, which allows them to participate in the regulatory framework, while some state courts have merely defined crypto exchanges as cash transfers under current rules. Moreover, in Texas, where relatively low electrical energy costs have attracted cryptocurrency miners and crypto “farms,” the state Senate has proposed an expense that will enable the electrical grid operator to more carefully manage crypto miners’ activities and energy credits.
The worldwide community is becoming concerned about the potential impact of cryptocurrency mining on the world’s electrical infrastructure. Illegal cryptocurrency farms have been discovered taking advantage of the electrical grid to take power, and botnets frequently attempt to syphon off computer system power from infected PCs, in addition to large amounts of energy being lawfully transformed into digital possessions without creating (as the White House puts it) “the regional and nationwide economic benefits generally associated with services using comparable quantities of electrical power.” While China and a few other countries have banned cryptocurrency exchanges, this is due more to a desire to regulate money transfers than to limit power use.
Regardless of growing interest in cryptocurrency guideline, Biden’s DAME Act has long shot of ending up being federal law in the short-term. With Republicans in control of your home of Representatives and Democrats in control of the Senate, both on razor-thin margins, passing any legislation at the minute is bitterly controversial. Impactful policy modifications on this level will likely need to wait till after the next election cycle in 2024, presuming one celebration or the other gains more total control of the legal and executive branches.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer
Formerly a graphic artist, Michael has been working on and tinkering with his home computer for more years than he wants to admit. He likes salsa verde, sports, science fiction, and folk music, albeit not necessarily in that order.