Rostin Behnam, chair of the USA Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, or CFTC, mentioned the Ethereum blockchain’s transition to proof-of-stake might assist scale back crypto’s vitality utilization, however hinted laws would seemingly nonetheless be wanted to deal with the issue.
Talking at a Thursday listening to earlier than the Senate Agriculture Committee, Behnam addressed a query from Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who introduced up the environmental impression of the “vital vitality” required of mining cryptocurrencies. With out mentioning the Merge by identify, the CFTC chair mentioned the crypto invoice presently being thought-about by lawmakers would require a report on vitality utilization that might result in future coverage dialogue and “incentives to maneuver away from carbon-intensive vitality sources.”
“We’ve all heard the statistics concerning the superb quantity of vitality used to mine cash,” mentioned Behnam. “I’d say that an occasion occurred final night time with Ethereum which goes to cut back vitality consumption — a step in the best path, however definitely not resolving the issue.”
CFTC chair Rostin Behnam addressing the Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday
In his written testimony, Behnam mentioned he was in favor of passing the Digital Commodities Shopper Safety Act, laws geared toward increasing the CFTC’s authority over the crypto market, including the regulatory physique had the “experience and expertise” to be the “regulator for the digital asset commodity market.” In response to the CFTC chair, most of the criticisms across the crypto area — specializing in fraud and scams — might be addressed by giving the company “a lens into the buying and selling platform” somewhat than counting on customers to convey enforcement instances.
“[The bill] would offer the authority to the CFTC to manage markets. This volatility, the fraud, the manipulation — a lot of it will in all probability go away as a result of we now have a regulator, a cop on the beat, and this could deter exercise by dangerous actors.”
Associated: Crypto invoice wants clarification on ‘digital commodity’ — Sheila Warren
The Ethereum Merge occurred on Thursday, marking the blockchain’s transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake and successfully slicing the community’s vitality consumption by an estimated 99.95%. The worth of Ether (ETH) fell below $1,500 within the hours following the occasion, with Cointelegraph reporting many crypto-minted nonfungible tokens with a Merge theme.
