EU Wants To Curb Bitcoin Mining

??EU’s Blockchain Energy Plan: The European Commission – the executive arm of the EU – is looking to make crypto assets more sustainable and wants to label blockchains based on their environmental impact.??

• The proposals were included in the EU's new action plan on digitalizing the energy system?
• “We know that crypto and blockchains are prominent features in the plan,” Marco explained, “in the face of high prices and Russian supply cuts, EU officials are exploring ways to reduce energy consumption.”?
• The Commission says that crypto now accounts for nearly 0.4% of energy consumption worldwide. That number has doubled compared to just two years ago, and increased by 900% in the past five years?
• The report does acknowledge that Bitcoin’s mining efficiency has improved greatly, but it also notes that mining difficulty has increased along with that efficiency?
• Marco explained that there is unlikely to be a ban on Proof-of-Work systems in the future. “Even though Bitcoin has been criticized harshly, MiCA – the comprehensive EU crypto regulation that’s highly likely to become law – did not include a ban on Proof-of-Work,” Marco explained, “even though there had been initial proposals for bans.”?

? Nuri Bank Shuts Down: Nuri, a Berlin-based crypto-friendly bank, has announced it’s shutting down after failing to secure new funds or an acquirer. The company says that customer deposits are safe and secure and have advised all users to withdraw money by December 18th.?

• The neo-bank launched as Bitwala in 2015 and rebranded as Nuri last year in an attempt to shake things up. It wanted to harness the power of blockchain and DeFi and offered traditional bank accounts with access to Bitcoin and Ethereum?
• The company says one of its main business partners was Celsius Network, and Celsius’ bankruptcy “worsened the situation significantly and put us over the edge.”?
• Marco says we’ll likely see similar situations in the future. “It’s definitely a sad story, Elaine. It’s not the first and it’s very likely not gonna be the last.”?

?? Mike Cahill on Oracles: Mike Cahill, the Director of Pyth Data Association – a decentralized oracle for financial data – joins Marco live to discuss the traditional finance transition to on-chain through decentralized oracle solutions.??

• “Oracle networks provide a trustworthy way to get data onto the blockchain to be used in the resolution of smart contracts,” Mark explained.?
• He says that Web3 consists of smart contracts – there's no company behind it, it's executed by the code and there's no third party that makes a judgment call. The data that comes in is analyzed by oracles - who then determine whether the smart contract should be executed.?
• Mike also explained that real-time data matters for traders and a mass amount of it can be stored on the blockchain.??
• He says that Pyth is looking to create an incentive system using a similar model to the Proof-of-Stake model in the future. “The things that secure Pyth today are the reputations of the data providers. In the future, we’re looking to make everything permissionless – anyone can show up, and they’ll have to post a stake and provide data. They’ll be rewarded for accurate data and penalized or slashed for inaccurate data.”?

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