Explained - New York State passes watered-down bill that will ban bitcoin mining


A bill has initially passed which requires freezing all “cryptocurrency mining centers” in New York for up to three years. It heads to the Assembly with more attention. It came into existence on 10th June’21. A planned crypto mining ban calling for a required three-year pause on all mining operations in New York has been watered down.
The bill passed in the legislature on June 8 and has now been raised to the state assembly on 10th June. If the bill is accepted in the assembly, it will be brought to Governor Andrew Cuomo to either approve or veto the planned legislation.
The early New York Senate Bill 6486A sought to halt all crypto mining for three years to bear environmental impact evaluations on mining operations in the tri-state area.
On the other hand, the bill was edited in the senate to get it over the line, and the revised 6486B bill is now focused solely. If any firm that uses carbon-based fuel causes to power proof-of-work crypto mining.
Bill existence and concerns-
State senators also detached the three-year provision and partial the bill's scope to new operations and existing ones. They are looking to upsurge their mining capacity. Furthermore, senators also called for documentation on miners' ecological footprint through the state.
The bill is founded on worries from some state-level legislators that improved carbon emissions from proof-of-work authentication like bitcoin mining could hamper the state's efforts to cut down carbon emissions.
Senators also ditched a three-year sunset provision, narrowing its scope to new projects and existing operations that are looking for growth in their rig count. And it gripped up calls to document miners’ state-wide environmental footmark. They mixed any reference of “cryptocurrency” from the final bill.
Firstly, though, the bill contained some accurate inaccuracies. But with the updated bill, senators seem to have silently acknowledged that bitcoin mining can be green. As the regulation would now only relate to operations that precisely leverage carbon-emitting power sources.

Shivangi Mujumdar
CBW - External Analyst
INDIA