The European parliament has reportedly drafted legislation to ban Bitcoin (BTC) and other Proof-of-Work (PoW) crypto assets in the European Union (EU) by 2025.
According to a report by German crypto media outlet BTC-ECHO on Wednesday, February 24, a final draft by the members of the European Parliament that include SPD, the Greens, and the Left, propose a ban on Bitcoin (BTC) and other PoW-based cryptocurrencies highlighting the same old “environmentally unsustainable consensus mechanisms”.
If the draft approves, EU crypto businesses would be prohibited from offering services on top of POW assets like Bitcoin after January 1, 2025. The final decision on the draft will be announced in the parliament on February 28.
The European Parliament’s MiCA Guidelines
According to the report, the final draft is part of the European Parliament’s MiCA Guidelines which is a final compromise proposal by the responsible Committee for Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON).
Stefan Berger, the chairman of the ECON committee and the main man behind the MiCA directive for the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the European Parliament, told the media that while the SPD, the Greens, and the Left energetically called for the ban to be pushed forward, the “factions of the Christian Democrats, right-wing conservatives, and liberals” opposed the crypto ban.
Ultimately, the parliament members in the favor of ban threatened to refuse to approve the MiCA draft without the crypto ban proposal.
According to many, the EU’s new draft to ban Bitcoin does not come as surprise as Stefan Berger already warned in early February that factions of the EU Parliament were advocating for a ban on PoW cryptos. In a Feb 3rd tweet, he wrote:
Riesenstreit im EU-Parlament um den #Bitcoin und #MiCA! @spdde & @Die_Gruenen wollen Proof-of-Work-Mining verbieten bzw. Kommission zu Maßnahmen gegen #PoW auffordern. Das wäre das Todesurteil für den BTC in Europa @CHerwartz 1/4 https://t.co/VhJ41XvHwN
— Stefan Berger (@DrStefanBerger) February 3, 2022
“Huge dispute in the EU Parliament about #Bitcoin and #MiCA! @spdde & @Die_Gruenen want to ban proof-of-work mining or call on the Commission to take action against #PoW. That would be the death sentence for BTC in Europe.”
The draft will be presented before the parliament the next Monday, February 28. After the final voting, there will be a “trialogue between the EU Commission, the Parliament, and the member states.” The EU Commission will then be tasked to evaluate the Parliament’s proposal. The final decision on whether the proposed ban will go ahead is expected later this year.
A Devastating Move For European Crypto Industry
The European crypto community and parliament members of EU states have called to prevent this MiCA amendment to move forward as they consider the new proposal of the EU Parliament to be “fatal”.
Patrick Hansen, Head of Growth and Strategy at Unstoppable Finance, described the proposal as an “act of suicide” and predicted it would kill the entire crypto industry in the EU.
Some members of the European Parliament (mainly greens & socialists) want to ban proof-of-work.
EU #crypto businesses would be prohibited from offering services on top of POW assets like #Bitcoin.
This would kill the European crypto industry. https://t.co/MsPtuMYuZL
— Patrick Hansen (@paddi_hansen) February 3, 2022
Frank Schäffler, a member of the German federal parliament Bundestag, hopes that his government and finance minister will work to prevent this ban move forward.
