Biden proposes heavy tax on cryptocurrency miners for 'the harms they impose on society'
The Biden administration has proposed a new tax intended to make cryptocurrency miners pay society back for the damage they cause. That's actually how the White House puts it(opens in new tab), with the so-called DAME tax intended to encourage actually talking specifically about «the harms» such crypto companies can inflict on society as a whole.
«Currently, cryptomining firms do not have to pay for the full cost they impose on others, in the form of local environmental pollution, higher energy prices, and the impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions on the climate,» the White House says of the proposal.
«The DAME tax encourages firms to start taking better account of the harms they impose on society.»
DAME stands for Digital Asset Mining Energy, and the DAME tax would force «firms» to pay a tax equal to 30% of the cost of the electricity they use in cryptocurrency mining. Which would undoubtedly eat away at profits massively, if not entirely, and likely make the whole venture practically pointless. Note the use of the terminology there, however: «firms.»
Currently the tax appears to be more of a drive to impose the levy on large mining operations over at-home prospectors. But then there's hardly any of the latter left.
The reason being that these cryptomining operations not only require massive amounts of electricity, but also increase risks of local authorities over-provisioning for demand that may come and go rapidly, increase prices for others in the area, and suck up what green energy capacity there might be.
«Alongside these known costs and risks, cryptomining does not generate the local and national economic benefits typically associated with businesses using similar amounts of electricity. Instead, the
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