– **Sweden has one of Europe’s top three Bitcoin mining sectors**
– **Government seeking ways to track how much power miners use**
Sweden has a choice to make: Provide electricity for job-creating projects such as steel plants or devote more capacity to the Bitcoin miners that are gobbling up growing amounts of power. Energy Minister Khashayar Farmanbar says it’s no contest.
“We need energy for more useful things than Bitcoin, to be honest,” Farmanbar said in an interview. “We are moving from a period of administration to an extreme expansion where our entire manufacturing industry is seeking to electrify.”
His comments suggest Sweden, home to what could be Europe’s largest Bitcoin mining industry, may become less hospitable to the business. The government is so concerned about electricity use that it asked the Swedish Energy Agency late last month to come up with ways of tracking how much power is used for digital infrastructure, with a special focus on crypto mining.
Bitcoin miners operate energy-intensive computers to solve complex mathematical puzzles and unlock rewards in the token. The business relies mainly on access to cheap electricity and land, rather than human labor. Profit margins are to a large extent determined by the swings in Bitcoin’s price.
The government’s review raises the specter that life will get harder for crypto miners that have flocked to Sweden, where vast hydro reservoirs and giant wind parks have delivered some of the cleanest and cheapest electricity in the world.
While Farmanbar declined to say what measures he may take to curb mining, one option mooted may include tweaking the order in which new power users get access to the grid so that those with a tangible benefit the society, including creating lots of jobs, get preference.
Another alternative may be to limit the preferential tax treatment that currently applies to all data centers, regardless of their use. Such incentives were never meant to attract crypto miners, but rather were aimed at multinational corporations such as Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platform Inc.’s Facebook, Erik Thornstrom, a senior adviser at industry group Swedenergy, said in an interview.
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– **Sweden has one of Europe’s top three Bitcoin mining sectors**
– **Government seeking ways to track how much power miners use**
Sweden has a choice to make: Provide electricity for job-creating projects such as steel plants or devote more capacity to the Bitcoin miners that are gobbling up growing amounts of power. Energy Minister Khashayar Farmanbar says it’s no contest.
“We need energy for more useful things than Bitcoin, to be honest,” Farmanbar said in an interview. “We are moving from a period of administration to an extreme expansion where our entire manufacturing industry is seeking to electrify.”
His comments suggest Sweden, home to what could be Europe’s largest Bitcoin mining industry, may become less hospitable to the business. The government is so concerned about electricity use that it asked the Swedish Energy Agency late last month to come up with ways of tracking how much power is used for digital infrastructure, with a special focus on crypto mining.
Bitcoin miners operate energy-intensive computers to solve complex mathematical puzzles and unlock rewards in the token. The business relies mainly on access to cheap electricity and land, rather than human labor. Profit margins are to a large extent determined by the swings in Bitcoin’s price.
The government’s review raises the specter that life will get harder for crypto miners that have flocked to Sweden, where vast hydro reservoirs and giant wind parks have delivered some of the cleanest and cheapest electricity in the world.
While Farmanbar declined to say what measures he may take to curb mining, one option mooted may include tweaking the order in which new power users get access to the grid so that those with a tangible benefit the society, including creating lots of jobs, get preference.
Another alternative may be to limit the preferential tax treatment that currently applies to all data centers, regardless of their use. Such incentives were never meant to attract crypto miners, but rather were aimed at multinational corporations such as Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platform Inc.’s Facebook, Erik Thornstrom, a senior adviser at industry group Swedenergy, said in an interview.