The European Parliament has rejected a regulatory proposal that would have essentially banned Bitcoin. The controversial proposal was part of the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, which was first proposed in 2020 to provide some legislation for governing digital assets.
A last minute addition to the bill was made this weekend, which would have effectively banned proof-of-work-based cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin due to concerns about how it uses energy. Proof-of-work is an incredibly energy-intensive process that's needed to validate transactions and add new blocks to the Blockchain. Its environmental impact has come under scrutiny time and time again, and for good reason.
According to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance , Bitcoin networks account for 95.45 terawatt-hours annually. In simple terms, this means Bitcoin consumes more energy than over half of the world's countries each year on an individual basis.
