New York Town of Brasher Implements Crypto Moratorium

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Right when we thought New York was going to become a more crypto-friendly state, the region of Brasher announced it is implementing a six-month cryptocurrency moratorium on all digital currency mining and related activities.

Brasher Ain’t Too Keen on Crypto Mining

The moratorium is set to go into effect on April 30 and will expire on October 31 unless it gets renewed by city council members. Representatives of the town of Brasher issued the following statement:

The town board believes that such a moratorium will protect the public interest and welfare of the residents of the town until such comprehensive regulations are adopted. There are currently no regulations regulating cryptocurrency mining operations except the current moratorium within the town.

Town Supervisor Mark A. Peets said Brasher currently doesn’t house any specific digital currency companies, though he mentioned they don’t want to let anyone in without proper regulation in place. He said:

We’re not allowing cryptocurrency until we have regulations. Before we allow people to go into that business, we want to be able to come up with some rules and regulations.

Right now, he believes there’s too much concern surrounding the amount of electricity that such operations often require. For the past several years, we have seen many reports come out saying that bitcoin and crypto mining often uses more energy than third-world countries, and that this is putting Mother Earth on a deadly path. He said:

They’d be using a whole lot of electricity. It’s going to put a burden on the electric system that we are now supposed to use for other things. So, until we can regulate it properly in the town of Brasher through our zoning laws, we’re just not going to allow people to come because there’s a section in the town of Brasher where folks get their electricity from the Massena Electric Department, which is a cheap rate… In the MED section of the town, we want to have some regulations put in place before we allow something like that to happen within the town.

He also said that while one company (which is unnamed at the time of writing) inquired about setting up shop within the region’s borders, he’s not even sure if Brasher has the kind of resources this enterprise is looking for. He mentioned:

It’s not set up for what they want. They want three-phase power, and there is no three-phase power in that area. So, they can’t just put something in without us being able to look at our zoning laws before we even allow something.

Too Many Environmental Issues?

Regarding further environmental impacts, Peets said:

These devices pull off a lot of heat, so much that they would need air conditioning, or they would vent it out into the atmosphere.

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