Washington Fights Against Crypto Mining

Published 5 years ago on October 22, 2018

A small town in the capital of the United States called Ephrata is fighting back against the world of cryptocurrencies and has stopped all activity related to it. The council in the town recently voted to halt all-digital currency mining operation in the town for the next year. The choice isn’t as surprising as you think when you look at other communities in the capital of Washington have been making similar ‘progress’.The administrator for the city has said that there are four different digital currency operations inside the area. The decision made by the council isn’t set to affect any of the current, on-going operations but instead, it is a ban on the new outside miners who might be thinking about starting up a venture in Ephrata. Grant County is near the centre of the state of Washington. Ephrata has a population of over 7,600 people. Now, towns and communities across Grant County have levied temporary bans on the new related development to crypto. Earlier in the year, it was reported that the numbers of crypto miners are going up and coming down on the smaller towns in America and its communities with the aim of cheap power. Many miners see the rural part of Washington to be a goldmine of sorts, especially around the Columbia River because of the hydroelectric power is so cheap and the massive open spaces that can be taken advantage of. According to Bitcoinist:

“Though some citizens in the area were initially excited about the potential economic opportunities mining companies and firms could bring, others expressed concern about negative effects like noise pollution.”

Back in April this year, one of the news outlets in the area published an article which stated:

“Huge power demands from cryptocurrency miners that threaten low power rates and the region’s agricultural economy.”

A few months ago, in August the same news outlet wrote about a jump in price for electricity for the crypto miners that have settled in the County. This means that the prices for power will surge up by 15% by next year and by 2020 the price will be up by 35% and in 2021 it will be up by 50%!Tom Flint, a Commissioner for the County spoke to a few miners in the area regarding the issues and said that the reason for these was to protect ratepayers from an unstable industry which is “unregulated and high-risk.”What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

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Adrian Barkley

Adrian is an avid reader who first stumbled across Crypto after reading 'The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains' by Antony Lewis in 2018. Since then, Adrian has immersed himself within the industry, and has a real interest in Enterprise Blockchain solutions.