Erick Thedeen is VC at European Securities and Market Authority, the central financial regulator overlooking EU markets. Recently, Thedeen raised some serious questions about PoW-based cryptocurrencies. He was attending an interview with the Financial Times recently when he claimed that the Bitcoin mining industry needs some consideration.
He said that the climate change concerns venerating from the Bitcoin mining enterprises are big enough to pose a national security crisis. He also added other PoW cryptocurrencies to the list. During the interview, Thedeen addressed European regulators to pay heed to the mining industry that is used to mint the new fork tokens.
According to Thedeen, other altcoins are using the PoS or Proof-of-Stake consensus model. He claimed that since PoS requires a lesser energy and power input they are more efficient alternatives. He added that the industry leaders need to have an open discussion about the possible shift towards efficient technology adoption.
Meanwhile, a cryptocurrency organization hailing from Paris called Melanion Capital recently came forward to defend the position of Bitcoin. The organization claimed that Bitcoin is a fully decentralized network with no lobbies backing it up therefore it is defenseless against the attack of the centralized regulators. Furthermore, the France-based organization also claimed that PoW mining ban allegations are entirely baseless.
Michael Saylor, Elon Musk, and Jack Dorsey are some of the biggest Bitcoin proponents thus far. All of the Bitcoin advocates have proceeded to talk about Bitcoin mining consumption. Tesla also conditioned Bitcoin payment for their products with 50% of the energy sources for Bitcoin mining converting to green energy resources last year.
Meanwhile, several countries in Asia including China, Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia, and India have aired their concerns about massive energy consumption and also imposed full or partial restrictions on the local mining organizations. Bitcoin Mining Council reported recently that during Q3 around 58% of the mining energy resources converted to renewable sources in 2021. However, EU regulator Thedeen plans to target all PoW digital assets regardless of green energy supply.