Cong. Huffman and his colleagues noted the estimates by researchers that Bitcoin mining produces approximately 30,700 tons of electronic waste annually.
“As cryptocurrency continues to gain popularity and demand more mining, we must ensure communities are not left with the toxic burdens associated with this technology,” the lawmakers wrote.
Bitcoin Backers’ rebuttal against House Democrats
In a rebuttal letter sent to EPA Administrator Regan, Bitcoin supporters argued that Cong. Huffman and his colleagues were wrong. According to them, the lawmakers’ claims were based on “several misperceptions about Bitcoin and digital asset mining that have previously been debunked.”
Bitcoin backers stated that the lawmakers conflate datacenters with power generation facilities. They explained that datacenters containing “miners” are similar to those owned by tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. A miner is a crypto industry term for a specialized computer server operating inside datacenters.
