According to a new report, U.S. president Joe Biden and his administration are focused on proof-of-work (PoW) mining. The principal assistant director for energy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) discussed the research report on July 2, 2022. The OSTP official, Costa Samaras, said if digital currencies plan to stick around then it is important that these financial systems are “developed responsibly and minimizes total emissions.”
Despite positive studies, Samaras has seen the negative reports that have been published over the past year that say there’s “noise, local pollution, older fossil generators being restarted in communities — These are not trivial loads.” Samaras explained that the White House energy team plans research policy response concepts that are appropriate for PoW and PoS algorithms. “We need to think about what would be the appropriate policy responses under a world that shifted to proof-of-stake, or a world that has some continuous mix of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake,” Samaras remarked during the interview. The White House’s principal assistant director for energy added:
Proof-of-work is energy-intensive by design, but it also increases security.
