The much-feared prospect of a ban on cryptocurrencies using proof-of-work (PoW) consensus is making its way into a key European directive on digital assets that seems to have vanished.
March 24 marked the last day that the European Parliament could stop the current Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) draft from further consideration.
Proponents of banning PoW-based digital asset trading were unable to muster enough support to challenge the current version of the bill.which means that MiCa will safely go on to be reviewed in tripartite meetings between the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council.
On March 21, Stefan Berger, the member of the European Parliament assigned to present MiCA to the legislature, announced that the normative project had passed the specialized committee and had been given the mandate to go to the tripartite meetings.
Berger also warned that the mandate could be challenged if a tenth of all MEPs (71 members) vote against it; in that case, the second round of voting in the April plenary would be required. He called it the latest possible attempt to freeze the moderated version of MiCa that does not include a controversial ban on proof-of-work (PoW) mining.
1/ MiCA➡️Diese Woche ist entscheidend für #PoW & #BTC !
1. Ausschuss ist meinem Vorschlag (Taxonomie) gefolgt & hat Bericht angenommen (Ohne PoW-Ban)
2. Ich erhielt Verhandlungsmandat für Trilog mit Kommission & Rat
3. Nun muss Bericht in dieser Form durch Trilog gebracht werden— Stefan Berger (@DrStefanBerger) March 21, 2022
MiCA is a regulatory framework containing 126 articles, as well as a detailed plan of its implementation by the EU institutions and member states. The draft was presented by the European Commission in 2020 as part of its Digital Finance strategy.
Early on March 25, Berger confirmed that MiCA avoided the challenge in the EU parliament and will go on to three-way consideration. He shared his optimism about the next steps in the process and mentioned submitting a proposal to include cryptocurrency mining activities in the EU taxonomy.
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