Mandatory survey of Bitcoin miners’ power consumption halted by US Energy Department – DL News

Bitcoin miners’ power use data collection halted

The US federal government agreed to stop its emergency data collection of energy consumption by the Bitcoin mining industry, settling a lawsuit filed by the Texas Blockchain Council and miner Riot Platforms.

The Energy Information Administration began a mandatory collection of data on energy use from mining companies in January, prompting the lawsuit that argued the EIA had exceeded its authority by failing to show how the emergency survey would prevent harm to the public.

The agreement states that the “EIA will destroy any information that it has already received in response” to the survey, and if it receives any additional information it will destroy that as well.

The EIA further agreed that any future surveys would follow a standard non-emergency process that would allow public comments to be made for 60 days.

Still, there may be issues to work out down the road.

Bloomberg has noted that the “notoriously energy-intensive industry’s Texas operations can consume more than 2 gigawatts at their peak, enough to power about 400,000 homes.”

And DL News has reported that the industry is also under pressure to address noise pollution generated by thousands of fan-cooled computers, which has nearby residents complaining of health problems.

SEC Commissioner Peirce calls for clear crypto regulation

US Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce, speaking at the ETHDenver conference, called for clear regulations that can be followed by the crypto industry, instead of her agency’s current method of regulation by enforcement.

“If you really want to sort the bad behaviour from the good behaviour, having rules that are clear to people who want to follow them is a much better approach than doing this, parachute in later with enforcement,” Peirce said.

The SEC has filed lawsuits against crypto exchanges Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken, based on the assumption, often repeated by SEC Chair Gary Gensler, that all tokens are securities, and therefore the agency has free rein to regulate the industry, DL News has reported.

Indonesia’s crypto regulator calls for tax breaks

An official at Indonesia’s crypto regulator, Bappebti, asked the country’s Finance Minister to reassess crypto tax rates, CoinDesk reported.

Tirta Karma Senjaya from Bappebti said at a crypto event that the industry is new and needs to develop before making significant tax contributions. He did not specify what revisions he had in mind.

In Indonesia, crypto is classed as a commodity and is subject to both VAT and income tax.

There will be an opportunity for change next year when oversight of crypto is passed on to the country’s financial services regulator, OJK, according to the report.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is down 0.60% today at $62,058.10.
• Ethereum is down 0.52% today at $3,418.23.

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