New York: No more mining!

A moratorium bill on mining Bitcoin and other PoW cryptocurrencies has been under consideration for more than eight months in various U.S. states with high population density, namely Arizona, Washington and Virginia.

Kathy Hochul, a member of the Democratic Party, took the first step toward a permanent ban on mining in the United States. She also explained that the bill was signed in light of the current Climate Change and Clean Energy Acts. 

This does not mean that the state will completely abandon crypto investments, but priority will be given to companies that use less energy-intensive technologies.

According to Kathy Hochul, the moratorium will remain in force for 2 years only. For this period, the state will neither issue new permits, nor extend the existing permits for any data centers. However, the companies with valid permits will be able to continue their mining operations. The state of New York is estimated to host about 12 data centers that will be allowed to continue operations for now. But the key word here is “for now”. 

Seneca Lake Guardian, an environmental advocacy organization that has long been hard at pushing the Senate to pass the bill, was especially delighted with the news.

Thank you, Governor Hochul, for stepping up to protect New Yorkers from corporate bullies who want to exploit communities! The crypto industry is going to whine that this is a blow, but it’s not.

reads the greens’ message in almost every local Internet resource.

Business, for its part, focuses mostly on the taxes that the regional economy will now miss and promises to keep up the struggle for the right to conduct free business in a free country.

This means that all previously restored gas-fired power plants used by data centers for mining operations will be shut down again.