Merge is 'a step in the right direction' to address crypto's energy usage — Rostin Behnam

Rostin Behnam, chair of the US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, or CFTC, stated the Ethereum blockchain’s transition to proof-of-stake could assist scale back crypto’s power utilization, however hinted laws would probably nonetheless be wanted to handle 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 influence of the “vital power” required of mining cryptocurrencies. With out mentioning the Merge by title, the CFTC chair stated the crypto invoice presently being thought-about by lawmakers would require a report on power utilization that might result in future coverage dialogue and “incentives to maneuver away from carbon-intensive power sources.”

“We’ve all heard the statistics in regards to the wonderful quantity of power used to mine cash,” stated Behnam. “I might say that an occasion occurred final evening with Ethereum which goes to scale back power consumption — a step in the proper course, however actually not resolving the issue.”

In his written testimony, Behnam said he was in favor of passing the Digital Commodities Shopper Safety Act, laws aimed 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 accordance with 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” fairly than counting on customers to deliver enforcement circumstances.

“[The bill] would supply the authority to the CFTC to control 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 might deter exercise by unhealthy 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 chopping the community’s power consumption by an estimated 99.95%. The value of Ether (ETH) fell underneath $1,500 within the hours following the occasion, with Cointelegraph reporting many crypto-minted nonfungible tokens with a Merge theme.