{"id":10701,"date":"2022-03-14T16:05:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T16:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci029c222810002795"},"modified":"2022-03-14T16:05:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T16:05:06","slug":"eu-parliament-backtracks-ban-on-bitcoin-proof-of-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/markets\/eu-parliament-backtracks-ban-on-bitcoin-proof-of-work","title":{"rendered":"EU Parliament Backtracks Ban On Bitcoin\u2019s Proof-Of-Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><ul>\n<li>The EU ECON committee voted on Monday to remove a section relating to a de-facto ban on bitcoin mining in the continent.<\/li>\n<li>The provision was part of the MiCA rules, the EU draft legislation to regulate Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies that passed on Monday&#8217;s voting session.<\/li>\n<li>An alternative amendment on PoW passed, adding bitcoin mining to the EU sustainable finance taxonomy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The European Union (EU) has dropped its plans to impose a de-facto ban on bitcoin mining and related activities that could allegedly hurt the region\u2019s efforts to promote sustainable technologies, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed de-facto ban on the <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/guides\/proof-of-work\">Proof-of-Work (PoW)<\/a> consensus mechanism was part of a major draft bill in the EU, the <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/?uri=CELEX%3A52020PC0593\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation<\/a>, introduced in 2020 to tighten regulation around Bitcoin and cryptocurrency by establishing a more detailed and streamlined regulatory framework across the continent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems that reason and common sense prevailed,\u201d Paris MEP Pierre Person <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Pierr_Person\/status\/1503386652227641344?s=20&amp;t=0_CYmKg0jQ2Je60b6Sm22A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tweeted<\/a>. \u201cWe must continue to defend the principle of technological neutrality. Europe must remain in the global competition!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The EU Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) voted against the PoW ban on Monday, while passing a new amendment that adds cryptocurrency mining to the <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/business-economy-euro\/banking-and-finance\/sustainable-finance\/eu-taxonomy-sustainable-activities_en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EU sustainable finance taxonomy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, the broader MiCA legislation was approved with 31 votes to 4 and 23 abstentions, as per an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/news\/en\/press-room\/20220309IPR25162\/cryptocurrencies-in-the-eu-new-rules-to-boost-benefits-and-curb-threats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">official press release<\/a> by the European Parliament. In addition to requiring a legislative proposal to include any cryptocurrency mining activities \u201cthat contribute substantially to climate change\u201d in the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities, MiCA defines regulatory agencies to oversee the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets, \u201csupports market integrity and financial stability,\u201d and \u201cincludes measures against market manipulation and to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and other criminal activities,\u201d per the release. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By adopting the MiCA report, the European Parliament has paved the way for an innovation-friendly crypto-regulation that can set standards worldwide,&#8221; lead MEP, Stefan Berger, said in the release.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>UPDATE (Mar 14, 2022 \u2013 9:00 pm UTC): <\/strong>Adds information from official European Parliament press release throughout.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ECON committee voted against a provision that would limit Proof-of-Work mining in the EU, passing an alternative rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2572,"featured_media":620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[733,686,93,1219],"class_list":{"0":"post-10701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-european-parliament","9":"tag-european-union","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-proof-of-work"},"author_data":{"id":2572,"name":"Namcios","nicename":"namcios","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pfp-96x96.png"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bitcoin-europe-eu.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2572"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}