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Worthwhile: Fort Worth, Texas, has become the first city in the U.S. to mine bitcoin, beating out other cities such as Miami that are angling to become bitcoin and crypto hubs. Fort Worth mayor Mattie Parker oversaw the construction of a small mining farm in City Hall, according to a CNBC report, that will see three mining rigs run 24 hours a day, seven days a week on a private network in Fort Worth City Hall. The city will make a decision on whether to grow the operation or wind it down in six months. Fort Worth has joined the U.S.-based Luxor Mining Pool on bitcoin miners, according to Axios.
Mine or yours? Bitcoin mining, the process of directing computing power towards the bitcoin network to secure it and validate transactions in return for newly created bitcoins, has flooded into the U.S. after China clamped down on the practice around a year ago. Many politicians and environmental activists have criticized the process, accusing bitcoin and crypto miners of unnecessarily contributing to climate change.
Messages are bigger in Texas: "With blockchain technology and cryptocurrency revolutionizing the financial landscape, we want to transform Fort Worth into a tech-friendly city," Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said in a statement, adding, "we're stepping into that world on a small scale while sending a big message—Fort Worth is where the future begins."
Meanwhile, in New York... Yesterday, the New York State Assembly voted to pass a bill that will essentially freeze current levels of crypto mining carbon emissions until the state can act on a comprehensive impact study. The Block has the details. "The intention of the bill is to prevent new mining operations that would draw power from fossil fuel generation, even if it’s partial," John Olsen, the New York state lead at crypto lobbyist Blockchain Association, told Blockworks this week. "The impact, though, is really just economic in the sense that good paying jobs are going to be going to other states, and mining operations that would face less regulatory scrutiny, in terms of environmental impact, would be setting up shop [in another state.]"
Signals and noise: Republican Assemblyman Robert Smullen argued that the bill was "anti-tech" and would send the wrong signal after New York City mayor Eric Adams last year got into what Vanity Fair called "a pissing contest" with Miami mayor Francis Suarez over who would accept more of his salary in cryptocurrency and which city was the most crypto-friendly.
The good, the bad and the EU: Earlier this week, European Central Bank (ECB) member Fabio Panetta branded cryptocurrencies a Ponzi scheme during a speech at Columbia University in New York, warned over "the Wild West of crypto finance" and claimed proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains, such as bitcoin, cause "huge amounts of pollution and damage to the environment." Panetta, who is overseeing the ECB's work on a digital euro, appealed for "coordinated efforts at the global level to bring crypto-assets into the regulatory purview." Last week, EU documents revealed the extent of anti-bitcoin sentiment among EU officials—and their desire to "protect" the likes of ethereum.
Now read this: Pressure grows in bitcoin ETF saga
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