Experts are beginning to weigh in on a Norwegian municipality’s protests against the noise from Bitcoin mining. Locals of Sortland town have been objecting to BTC mining developments in the area for some time now.
CEO of KryptoVault, Kjetil Hove Pettersen has come out in support of the mining community arguing that the complaints could be another case of the media targetting Bitcoin. The country, which is responsible for close to 1% of the global hash rate, gets its power from green energy sources, Pettersen said. It is almost entirely powered by hydropower. The miners in fact even use the waste heat from the mining process to help local businesses dry out timber and seaweed.
Another expert, Jaran Mellerud, an analyst from Arcane Research explained to Cointelegraph that there is a surplus of electricity in northern Norway due to limited demand and transmission capacity.
The development unfolds even as the crypto world is celebrating Ethereum having successfully dropped the not-so-eco-friendly Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism of verifying transactions. The mining process is part of the PoW mechanism, and it is what Bitcoin continues to use.
Bitcoin mining has been a contentious topic in Norway for some time now. Earlier this year, in May, a proposal to ban Bitcoin mining in the country was made in the Norwegian Parliament. The proposal was subsequently rejected. In 2018, a mining company even received a bomb threat over the issue.
