A proposed climate tax on crypto mining is gaining momentum

Stk087 Vrg Illo N Barclay 7 Bitcoin.0.jpg


Art depicting white and blue circles against an orange background. One circle in the center has a Bitcoin logo.
Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge

A tentative proposal to tax cryptocurrency mining to raise funds for climate action took off during a United Nations climate conference that’s set to come to a close today.

A levy on energy-hungry crypto mining, at $0.045 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity used, could generate $5.2 billion in revenue annually, according to a report released last week by the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force, led by Kenya, Barbados, and France.

The Bitcoin network is estimated to use more electricity annually than a majority of the world’s countries do individually. The idea is that a climate tax could reduce emissions by incentivizing mining firms to clean up their operations. And it could provide desperately needed funding to help less affluent…

Continue reading…

This post was originally published on this site