Norwegian lawmakers have passed a law that imposes data reporting requirements for Norwegian data centers. The aim is to regulate energy consumption for crypto mining operations – the biggest of which revolves around Bitcoin.
According to Digitization Minister Karianne Tung and Energy Minister Terje Aasland, the government aims to close the door on crypto mining in general.
“The purpose is to regulate the industry so that we can close the door to the projects we don’t want,” Tung said, according to a local news report.
The new law – a first of its kind in Europe – requires data centers to register with the government, report who owns and manages them and explain what services they offer. Aasland claimed that this will help the country target its energy consumption towards “socially useful” services and infrastructure, which does not include crypto.
“It involves large greenhouse gas emissions and is an example of a type of business that we do not want in Norway,” he said, with support from Tung.
Bitcoin mining is a global industry in which individuals and companies compete to “mine” new units of BTC using large fleets of power-hungry computer hardware. A 2022 report from Arcane Research suggests that Norway produced 0.77% of Bitcoin's global hash rate – an outsized share compared to the size of the country – thanks to its extremely cheap electricity costs, which make local miners more competitive.
“You are not welcome in Norway,” Aasland continued. “We want serious players who are important to society, and the computer industry that serves society is important to us.”
Norwegian officials received harsh backlash from mining industry experts who say no part of Aasland's claims about mining are backed by data.
“Bitcoin mining has an extremely high sustainable energy consumption of 55%, higher than any other global industry or major industrial nation,” Daniel Batten, co-founder of CH4 Capital, wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Additionally, Bitcoin miners do not emit greenhouse gases themselves, but instead emit secondary emissions from an underlying energy source. Norway in particular is powered almost exclusively by cheap, renewable hydropower, which is what makes it attractive to Bitcoin miners in the first place.
“The state’s ability to decide who has the right to use energy and who does not is, by definition, discriminatory,” Batten added. “Aasland has no problem with people using electricity to watch porn (a much higher energy consumer), but he does have a problem with people using energy to mine Bitcoin.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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