The Turkish Central Bank Is Concerned Over BTC Energy Consumption

The Turkish central bank is concerned over the Bitcoin energy consumption according to a report submitted by the Turkish parliament by the bank as we read more in our latest bitcoin news today.

Turkey awaits new regulations on BTC and other cryptocurrencies from its policymakers and the reports by the bank outlined concerns that the regulations are considering. The bank outlined the environmental impact of BTC for the first time as the Turkish Central Bank is working with the other government agencies on the upcomign crypto regulations submitted a report to the parliament detailing the views on crypto. In a first for the Turkish government agency, the central bank is sounding the alarm regarding the impact of BTC echoing most of the same concerns expressed by the government of China.

The report titled “May 2021” is not publicly available but was obtained by the local media Bloomberg HT and was addressed to the Parliamentary Commission on Online Environments as a body that is tasked with legislation around anything that has to do with the Internet including crypto. Turkey is now in the process of establishing regulations on crypto assets and crypto as a medium of payment is banned so the government ruled out banning assets entirely. The bank’s report offers a dive into the history and nature of crypto and lists a few risks associated with BTC and other cryptocurrencies. Notably, the report outlined the environmental concerns about crypto:

“Crypto mining leads to high energy consumption, contributing to global warming.”

Mining is how the most actively traded crypto assets like BTC and ETH are created as it involves the use of a high-powered computer that solves complex mathematical problems via a process known as Proof of work and it underpins blockchain networks like BTC. Turkey isn’t known to have a lot of miners, unlike Iran which has banned mining a week ago. China as one of the hotbeds for mining is in the process of rolling out the restrictions on mining throughout the entire country.

The environmental concerns are a major driving force behind the market crash which started two weeks ago. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk announced that his company purchased $1.5 billion in BTC and said that Tesla will not accept BTC as a form of payment anymore due to environmental concerns, three months after it announced that it will. This prompted the formation of the BTC mining council via the intervention of Microstrategy CEO and BTC evangelist Michael Saylor who aims to organize mining companies to promote green energy and sustainability.