Bitcoin mining continues to generate controversy in New York, especially because locals denounce the impact of farms on the environment. The resistance to the companies operating mining equipment has generated a long dispute that has been discussed even in the legislative of that state of the United States.
The contenders of this impasse are, on the one hand, a large group of citizens led by environmentalists and supported by a large part of the Senate. On the other, there is the Greenidge electric company, operated with fossil fuel, formerly coal and now gas.
The company, now entirely dedicated to producing energy for digital mining, has been expanding its capacity for a year and a half. This set off alarm bells between authorities and conservation groups, which generated pressure. However, the case was dealt with superficially in the legislation and mining was not prohibited.
Senate decision did not ease controversy related to Bitcoin mining
It should be noted that, if the controversy over Bitcoin mining in New York was acute, the alleged bias of the Legislature, has worsened spirits. As Crypto Trend reported in previous posts, the legislation dismissed the possibility of banning mining for three years while assessing its real impact.
Instead, he simply ordered the mining companies to stop the expansion process rather than the activity itself. It was also agreed that the executive would not issue licenses to new mining companies.
An accompanying problem is that the expansion of hash power is an indispensable requirement for the continuity of the mining business. In other words, the more miners are integrated into the network in the world, the more complex it is to mine. To this is added that Bitcoin is a limited issue currency, every 4 years the rewards are halved. All this results in that year after year, you need to increase the hash power to keep up with the pace with which you were operating.
Consequently, as competition increases, the difficulty of mining increases, so more machines are required. This leads to the inevitable growth in energy demand. This “syllogistic” sequence leads to the conclusion that Greenidge will continue to expand its fossil fuel burning operations to generate the power to power its machines.
The problem with residents
Despite pressure from locals, there seems to be a final decision and the farm will continue to operate. However, protests continue. The most recent case is in development around Lake Seneka, the largest of the popular Finger lakes of the aforementioned North American city.
It is a paradisiacal place where thousands of people come to spend evenings and weekends. Activities vary, from fishing, swimming or just drinking wine. Now, locals denounce that the temperature of the lake has increased dramatically and compare it to a “sauna”.
This is because the Greenidge power plant is located on the shores of that lake. Thus, the controversy that generated the installation of Bitcoin mining equipment in a plant powered by fossil fuel, is far from over.
A look at the attacks and criticisms that are made in the world against Bitcoin, are related to mining with this type of fuel. The most emblematic case was the decision of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, to suspend the sale of its electric vehicles with Bitcoin as a means of payment.
That decision caused a violent drop in the price of the cryptocurrency from almost $65,000 to a price level close to the current one.
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