United States House of Representatives member Jared Huffman and 22 other lawmakers have requested the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, assess crypto mining firms potentially violating environmental statutes. In a letter addressed to EPA administrator Michael Regan on Wednesday, Huffman said he and other Democratic House members had “serious concerns” around crypto firms in the United States reportedly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and not operating in accordance with either the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act. The lawmakers identified efforts to “re-open closed gas and coal facilities” as a means to produce energy for crypto mining operations …

Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Bank of Russia, has admitted that Russia’s central bank might have taken a bit too tough a stance on digital assets and should look to reconsider that. On Thursday, the Russian State Duma reappointed Nabiullina as Bank of Russia governor, marking the third time for her to take the post since she started serving in the position back in 2013. At the official Duma session, Nabiullina talked about many measures that Russia has been taking and is planning to adopt in order to help the government mitigate the impact of massive Western sanctions against the …

The United States Treasury Department has added Russia-based crypto mining services provider BitRiver and several subsidiaries as firms facilitating the evasion of sanctions. In a Wednesday announcement, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, said it was taking action against BitRiver AG, as well as 10 of its Russia-based subsidiaries, naming the companies as “Specially Designated Nationals.” Firms and individuals listed as such by OFAC have their assets blocked and “U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.” According to the U.S. Treasury, the actions against BitRiver and its subsidiaries were based on them allegedly facilitating …

Decred (DCR) prices soared by as much as 45% on April 18 before paring some gains as traders bet on a major hard fork that aims to prevent pump-and-dump schemes by miners. Key Decred network upgrade in three weeks DCR rallied by nearly 45% to over $86 in one day, its highest level in four months. Moreover, the massive upside move accompanied a similarly huge spike in its trading volumes, confirming that most traders backed the intraday bullish momentum. Traders flocked to buying Decred ahead of a key upgrade slated for early May that would reduce the DCR mining reward …

The Iranian government will increase the penalties for the use of subsidized energy in crypto mining. The move marks another step in tightening mining regulation in the country, which had faced energy shortages in recent years. Citing the country’s Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission company, the Tehran Times reported that the government plans to drastically increase the rates of fines for mining operators who use subsidized electricity on Saturday. The company's representative Mohammad Khodadadi Bohlouli specified: “Any use of subsidized electricity, intended for households, industrial, agricultural and commercial subscribers, for mining cryptocurrency is prohibited.” According to Bohlouli, the fines for …

North Dakota government officials rocked up to the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami to lure cryptocurrency miners into their greener pastures. They came with the promise of the “cleanest crypto on the planet.” The North Dakota Commerce Department dropped $35,000 on the trip, saying it expected a return of 20,000% or more from its presence at the conference. The department announced that the state has already secured $3 billion of crypto investment and is close to attracting another $3 billion worth of projects. North Dakota hopes to end its reliance on agriculture and oil by enticing crypto mining companies to …

The town of Serodino in Argentina’s Santa Fe Province could begin to mine crypto in a bid to raise the money needed for its rail infrastructure upgrade. Its mayor doesn’t see any risk in mining the digital currencies that can be sold immediately. As the local media reported on April 10, the town of 6000 people has already purchased six graphics cards and will be buying a mining rig in the nearest future. According to Sorradino’s mayor Juan Pio Drovetta, the initiative to mine cryptocurrencies was supported by the local community. Like many other rural towns in Argentina, Sorradino was …

What do a swimming pool, beef jerky, a caravan, timber, animal waste, a Guatemalan lake and a high school have in common? They’ve all been saved by Bitcoin (BTC) mining. From reusing “waste” heat to getting the job done — to receiving a cool blast of air to dehydrate meat, to cleaning up pollutants, Bitcoin mining does more than just secure the network. Here’s a round-up of seven times Bitcoin mining lent a hand or simply made the world a better place. Free Bitcoin mining education in Washington Sustainable Bitcoin mining company Merkle Standard has taken Bitcoin mining education into …

In an important precedent, a Supreme Court judge in New York state’s Yates County ruled in favor of cryptocurrency mining firm Greenidge Generation, dismissing a petition filed by a coalition of environmental activists. According to an Apr. 7 press release by Greenidge, judge Daniel Doyle dismissed a petition against the Greenidge Generation Holdings that a group of environmental organizations — Sierra Club, Seneca Lake Guardian, Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes, as well as a number of individuals — brought in an attempt to stop the mining operation at Seneca Lake. The petition also called to halt Greenidge’s plans to …

A Bitcoiner has "pooled" off another mining innovation. The 'waste' heat generated by mining Bitcoin (BTC) is used to warm his swimming pool. Bitcoin enthusiast Jonathan Yuan had kids who “love swimming, but the year before [he started using waste heat], they barely ever did it because it was always too cold for them.” Fortunately, he was interested in Bitcoin mining and understood that Bitcoin mining emits a lot of heat. Yuan told Cointelegraph that he purchased a “heat exchanger and setup some ASICs,” (application-specific integrated circuits), and subsequently managed to keep “the pool above 90F all summer.” The process …

Over the last couple of years, the world has been grappling with the lack of semiconductors, which are the substances that conduct electricity between metals and isolates. The most famous semiconductor is silicon. If correlating this concept to electronic devices, then the key semiconductors are processors and other microcircuits that are present in almost all devices that people use every day, from smartphones to cars. In 2021, semiconductors hit a world record in terms of sales. Electronics production also boomed, with hundreds of millions of complex semiconductors being devoured by gaming consoles. The number of GPUs produced grew to unseen …

A recent report has shown that nearly one-fifth of the total share of Bitcoin’s hash rate now belongs to publicly-listed mining companies. The report, published by Arcane Research, details that publicly-listed Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies now account for 19% of Bitcoin’s total hash rate, growing considerably from a mere 3% in Jan. last year. The term hash rate refers to the total computing power used by a miner’s computing equipment to confirm a transaction. A higher hash rate ensures increased protection against double-spending attacks, which is the process of reversing BTC transactions over the blockchain by contributing to at least …