There are only a few hours left before the Regulation on Cryptoactive Markets, better known as the MiCA Law, is put to the vote in the European Parliament. There are several personalities and companies inside and outside the bitcoin industry that reject the restrictions that this law could impose on mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Although several modifications were made to the text that they suggested that a measure against mining would not be establishedas reported by CriptoNoticias, apparently there is still an intention to limit the use of cryptocurrencies that are mined through Proof of Work (PoW), for example, Bitcoin.
This was stated by the French deputy, Pierre Person, who review the current version of the legislation. The parliamentarian says that —as it is drafted— the law “definitely condemns the future of crypto assets in Europe”, likewise, he maintains that if bitcoin and ether, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, were prohibited and the use of non-fungible tokens (NFT) were complicated ) and decentralized finance (DeFi), the European Parliament would be “mortgaging the monetary and financial sovereignty of Europe”.
MiCA represents a significant break with the principle of technological neutrality. MiCA prohibits the issuance or offer for exchange of crypto assets that are based on proof-of-work protocols. This leads to deadly regulation that excludes bitcoin and ether from Europe.
Pierre Person, French deputy.
Additionally, the deputy maintains that the parliamentarians who have strongly opposed cryptocurrencies, believing that they protect citizens, in reality —under the current version of the law— make them lose competitiveness against the United States and other countries.
Person’s words are related to the recent executive order that defines the strategy of the government of President Joe Biden, for the regulation of bitcoin in that country, a fact reported by CriptoNoticias.
Michael Saylor defends proof of work
Other voices that have come out to reject the MiCA law are those of the renowned bitcoiner and businessman, Michael Saylor.
The CEO of MicroStrategy express that “the only established method of creating digital property is through proof of work.”
The executive emphasized that Bitcoin is a “digital property” and the “most profitable” method discovered so far to “turn energy into prosperity.” “Banning digital property would be a billion-dollar mistake,” he said.
He also said that non-energy-based approaches like proof-of-stake (PoS), should be considered securities (securities) “until proven otherwise”.
For its part, Ledger, the company that creates hardware wallets, based in France, was emphatic in its rejection of European legislation.
In a release published on March 11, claim that “certain parties proposed amendments” with the aim of ban Proof-of-Work consensus protocolssuch as Bitcoin, Ethereum and other popular blockchains and crypto assets in Europe.
According to the company, several MPs issued an ultimatum to the rest of Parliament which read: “accept our bitcoin ban or we will oppose the entire MiCA package.”
In this sense, Ledger indicated that individuals and organizations “should have the freedom to choose the technology that best suits their needs. Policymakers should not dictate or discriminate in favor of a particular technology. This is very worrying and would have serious consequences for Europe.”
It should be remembered that the intentions to ban Bitcoin mining in Europe came after Erik Thedéen and Björn Risinger, directors of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, published a report on the activity impact.
However, there are studies, such as the one by Bitcoin Net Zero, which state that, although the energy consumption of Bitcoin can be considered “high”, it does not even represent 0.04% of global electricity consumption.