New York pushes forward a bill that will ban proof-of-work mining once approved, members of the crypto community express their disagreement through social media.
The head of policy at Blockchain Association Jake Chervinsky, explained that the move will not decrease carbon emissions at all. According to Chervinsky, a mining ban will only push miners away from New York to building in other areas where the state has no influence over them.
He hopes that New York Governor Kathy Hochul will reject the bill for the sake of New York. It was clear the move sends a message that crypto is not welcome in the state. If the bill gets implemented, Chervinsky mentioned that it will be a policy error from the world’s financial capital.
Senatorial candidate Bruce Fenton also opposed the move. In a tweet, he stated that governments do not have the right to control which software people should run. He noted that code is speech suggesting that the ban is a move against freedom of speech.
Vitalik Buterin the founder of Ethereum also agreed with Fenton. He suggested the implementation of carbon pricing and using the earnings to compensate users with low income. Amid the push to ban mining, the New York Attorney General Letitia James warned New Yorkers against investing in crypto.
