Bitcoin mining consumed more than 50 billion KWh in the United States in 2022: the government announces a rate of 30%

Bitcoin mining is an activity in which a few earn, and everyone pays. That is going to end, at least in the United States.

The cryptocurrency miningin addition to being highly pollutinghas another “side effect”: it costs money to all citizens, because it raises the price of electricity. The United States government wants to remedy it with a rate of 30% to the electricity consumption of cryptocurrency farms.

“Let’s make cryptominers pay for the costs they impose on others“said a representative of the White House, in the presentation of the bill that seeks to apply a rate of 30% to all electricity consumed by cryptocurrency farms.

The White House itself has carried out a study of the electricity consumption of Bitcoin miningand the result is overwhelming: 50,000 million KWh, only in 2022, and only in the United States.

That equates to consumption of all computers and all refrigerators in the countryas can be seen in this graph.

It is very close to the consumption of all televisions in the United States.

This very high electrical consumption, for the benefit of a few, has two serious consequences. On the one hand, harms the environment and climate changebecause most of that electricity is generated from polluting sources, such as the oil. It is no coincidence that most cryptocurrency farms are in Texaswhere oil is cheap.

In addition, due to the price system in the United States (and in most countries), if there is a high electricity consumption in an area, electricity is more in demand and the price of electricity rises. In cities near crypto farms has risen between 5 and 10%because of this.

So all citizens pay so that only a few benefit from cryptocurrencies.

A 30% fee for Bitcoin mining

To try to offset these losses for citizens, the US government has introduced a bill called the GIVE ME tax (Digital Asset Mining Energy).

Your goal is apply a rate of 30% to all energy consumption generated by crypto mining companies.

It is a controversial law, because it is not clear if this money is going to stay in the state coffers, or if it is going to be returned to the citizens to compensate for the increase in electricity due to the proximity of a cryptocurrency farm.

Those affected complain that this rate will cause many small cryptocurrency farms to closeleaving only the big companies that concentrate all the power, something that goes against the philosophy of Bitcoin.

Now that it seems that cryptocurrencies have recovered from the crisis, We must fix the issue of electricity consumption and pollution. An additional tax does not seem to be the best solution, because it does not reduce either of the two problems.