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Investing.com – Could Le and other cryptocurrencies be banned in the EU following a vote expected today?
It was indeed fears about this that weighed on Bitcoin over the weekend, causing the crypto to fall to around $37,500 overnight from Sunday to Monday.
Bloomberg has indeed revealed that a vote by the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee is expected this Monday, March 14, 2022, and that the text to be voted on provides that crypto-assets issued and/or traded in the EU must “be subject to minimum standards of environmental sustainability and put in place and maintain a phased roll-out plan to ensure compliance”.
The reference to the ecological impact as well as the deployment requirements were identified as last minute changes introduced to limit, or even prohibit, the use of digital currencies operating on a consensus mechanism called “proof of work”, on which is based in particular on Bitcoin.
This would mean that BTC, to avoid being excluded from the EU, would have to start the transition from “proof of work” to “proof of stake”, and a priori, this seems more or less impossible for BTC.
“The voting stakes are extremely high in the EU. That such a proposal has gone this far is extraordinarily disturbing and unlikely to stand up to practical reality,” Circle Pay founder Jeremy Allaire said on Twitter (NYSE :).
Recall that a previous version of the provision proposed the banning of “proof-of-work” cryptocurrencies in the EU from January 2025. This provision was later dropped following criticism from crypto advocates. -currency, before the modified version was reintegrated into the latest project.
Finally, it should be noted that once the Parliament has decided on the project, it will move on to a trilogue, ie an official round of negotiations between the European Commission, the Council and the Parliament.
The result of the vote expected today will therefore have to be watched very closely, but it should not be forgotten that other steps will then be necessary for the Bitcoin ban to start to become a concrete risk.
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