British Columbia suspends new logins for Bitcoin miners

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BC Hydro, a state-owned electricity utility provider in the Canadian province of British Columbia, has suspended new power connection requests from cryptocurrency miners for 18 months to support climate action and the economic objectives of the province.

Cryptocurrency mining consumes huge amounts of electricity to run and cool banks of powerful computers 24/7/365, while creating very few jobs in the local economy, the city said on Wednesday. Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation Josie Osborne in a press release. .

The suspension would target cryptocurrency miners who have not yet connected to the network and those who were in the early stages of connecting.

Existing Bitcoin mining operators and those well into the BC Hydros connection process would not be affected.

Environmentalists have criticized Bitcoin for its energy expenditure, with many comparing the network’s consumption to that of entire countries.

The Bitcoin network relies on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm, which requires a lot of energy as Bitcoin miners compete to solve cryptographic puzzles and ensure blockchain security while earning awards for their efforts.

Enough energy to power 570,000 homes

According to the Canada Energy Regulator, approximately 87% of British Columbia’s electricity is generated by hydroelectricity, which has sparked unprecedented interest from crypto miners, according to the BC government. province.

The ministry said BC Hydro currently serves seven crypto-mining operations and has six in advanced stages of connection, totaling 273 megawatts of power.

Additionally, the province is facing applications for 21 projects with an expected energy consumption of 1,403 megawatts, enough energy to power 570,000 homes or 2.1 million electric vehicles for one year. All such requests will now be suspended.

The decision follows a similar decision by the Province of Manitoba last month in response to concerns that cryptocurrency operations have a high environmental impact by drawing massive amounts of electricity with little economic fallout.

Hydro-Quebec is also considering going the same route, asking the provincial regulator in early November to suspend the process of allocating power to cryptocurrency miners.

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