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The Norwegian Parliament voted down a proposal banning Bitcoin mining, allowing the crypto mining industry to continue to thrive in the country.
According to a report by Cointelegraph, the proposal — first suggested in March by the Red Party — was rejected by a parliamentary vote on May 13. The ban failed to gain political support outside of members of Norway’s Socialist Left Party, Red Party and Green Party, and was ultimately voted down.
The Red Party’s Sofie Marhaug told E24 that she was “obviously disappointed” by the majority vote and said her party would work harder to garner support from citizens in the future. She said the country must “prioritize” its energy use, noting the energy-intensive criticism of crypto mining and negative impact on climate change.
Jaran Mellerud, an analyst at Arcane Research, told Cointelegraph that the vote signified a greater win for large-scale Bitcoin mining:
Having lost this vote, these political parties will likely make one more attempt at increasing the power tax specifically for miners, which is now their only tool left in the toolbox for making life difficult for miners.
Mellerud claimed that political parties hostile to Bitcoin have been trying to force miners out of Norway via the implementation of a higher power tax rate. He called the decision by the government to overturn the proposal “the latest nail in the coffin” for attempts to rid Norway of the crypto industry.
The report claims that Norway represents a “green oasis” for Bitcoin mining, with abundant hydropower and low energy prices. Norwegian miners contributes as much as a 1% to Bitcoin’s global hash rate, in part due to leveraging renewable energy in the country.
Featured Image by “ELG21” via Pixabay.com
