Biden administration to clamp down on Bitcoin via emergency data collection on mining

Table of Contents

• Bitcoin is legitimate
• A full collection of data
• A stick with which to beat the bitcoin mining industry?

The Biden administration recently put out an emergency edict which requires all bitcoin mining operations in the United States to submit full data on their electricity usage. US grid stability is cited as the reason.

Bitcoin is legitimate

Bitcoin is a commodity according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and recently no less than 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved by the SEC after a US court judge accused the agency of being arbitrary and capricious for not having already done so.

The Biden administration has shown itself to be very anti-bitcoin, as well as all things cryptocurrency, and the Spot Bitcoin ETF approvals must have damaged the administration’s quest to suppress bitcoin, while trying to protect the banking system, which is on its knees.

A full collection of data

By terming the survey on bitcoin mining energy use as an “emergency”, the Biden administration is showing its hand. The requested reports from all bitcoin mining operations is “mandatory”, and instructions for the report threaten that it will be a “criminal offence” to return any “false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements,”

The submissions will require information such as the number of mining facilities operated, their location, amount of electricity consumed at facilities, the percentage of electricity used purely for mining, details on the number and model of ASIC miners used, and the maximum hashrate produced.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration, who are charged with collecting the data, stated the following in a press release on the subject:

“We intend to continue to analyze and write about the energy implications of cryptocurrency mining activities in the United States,” said EIA Administrator Joe DeCarolis. “We will specifically focus on how the energy demand for cryptocurrency mining is evolving, identify geographic areas of high growth, and quantify the sources of electricity used to meet cryptocurrency mining demand.”

A stick with which to beat the bitcoin mining industry?

This all sounds quite reasonable, and if the data is analysed properly, it will be interesting to know the results. However, if the data is only used to sum up the amount of electricity utilised by the bitcoin mining industry in the U.S. without taking into account benefits such as using wasted energy, then this is just likely to be used as a stick with which to beat the industry.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.