The European Union has made an announcement in regards to introducing a label that is specifically for cryptocurrency miners.
The particular label is to increase energy efficiency. It is an effort made by the European Union to counter the increasing consumption of electricity mainly at the data centers.
According to sources, one of the major targets for the European Union is the centers involved in cryptocurrency mining.
European Countries to Target and Monitor Crypto Miners
The cryptocurrency mining industry has continued expanding its network all over the world.
As mining activities require a tremendous amount of energy, therefore, the miners always look for countries that have energy in abundance.
Compared to the rest of the world, it is Europe once had an abundance of energy but now, the situation has changed entirely.
All the states and members of the EU are now facing huge energy-based crises.
As the EU is constantly pressurizing Russia over the Ukrainian invasion, and implementing sanctions, Russia, has come up with its own strategy to counter the EU.
Russia has reduced the energy supply to entire of Europe, causing a massive energy crisis in the continent. Now, the EU is determined to control energy consumption to rely less on Russia.
The European Commission has, therefore, urged all the members to partake in the effort and work on energy efficiency.
Less Reliance on Russia
Europe is mainly a cold continent so it needs an abundance of energy during the winters. This is where the gas and energy sources come in from Russia.
The continent does not want to lift sanctions on Russia as it wants to keep the pressure built so it leaves Ukraine alone.
This is the reason why it is targeting crypto miners who are responsible for using an enormous amount of energy.
More Environment-Friendly Mining Centers
Just recently, the EU proposed a draft where it proposed that environment and energy-friendly mining centers must be encouraged in the country.
This would mean that the EU is now supporting the proof-of-stake protocols (cryptocurrencies) compared to the proof-of-work protocols.
The PoW requires a tremendous amount of energy in order for cryptocurrencies to be mined. As the PoW protocols are dependent on hash power, the mining centers keep adding more miners to their centers.
This activity eventually leads to consuming more and more energy, which is badly impacting Europe’s energy usage.
With the European Union’s pressure rising, the mining centers operating in Europe would not have a choice but to move to the PoS protocols. Otherwise, they will need to limit their energy consumption.
This would mean that the mining centers would not be able to mine up to their full potential. This would eventually, impact the overall situation of the PoW cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic.