A proposed rule that could effectively ban %Bitcoin ($BTC) mining is being voted on in the European Union (EU) parliament today (March 14).
The European parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee is set to vote on a draft of a proposed “Markets in Crypto Assets” framework, the EU’s sweeping legislative package for governing digital assets.
The draft contains a late addition that looks to limit cryptocurrency mining that is powered by an energy-intensive computing process known as “proof-of-work.” Although the vote is expected to be close, a small majority of committee members may vote against the measure, according to media reports.
The provision in question requires all %Cryptocurrency assets to be subject to the EU’s “minimum environmental sustainability standards with respect to their consensus mechanism used for validating transactions, before being issued, offered or admitted to trading in the Union,” reads the legislation.
For cryptocurrencies such as %Bitcoin and %Ethereum ($ETH), that are already being traded in the EU, the rule proposes a phase-out plan to shift their consensus mechanism from proof-of-work to other mining methods that use less energy, such as “proof-of-stake.”
Although there are plans to move Ethereum to a proof-of-stake mining mechanism, it’s unclear whether the same option is available for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Several EU parliamentarians have been pushing to ban proof-of-work cryptocurrencies over energy concerns, even if the energy in question is renewable. They fear that renewable energy could be channeled into proof-of-work computing rather than the national grid destined for public use.
A previous version of the legislation proposed the prohibition of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies in the EU starting in January 2025. The provision was later dropped following criticism from cryptocurrency advocates before the modified version made it back into the latest draft of the legislation.
Once the EU parliament votes on the draft, it will move on to a formal round of negotiations between the European commission, council and parliament.