Jumaane Williams: New York Should Not Engage in Crypto Mining

Jumaane Williams – a democratic gubernatorial candidate that’s seeking office in New York – says he wants to end a lot of the crypto mining that’s occurring in the Big Apple. While he’s not against crypto mining completely, he says he wants most facilities shut down so they can take time to reevaluate all the energy they’re using.

Williams Wants NY to Take a “Mining Break”

Williams made the announcement at a winery in the Finger Lakes, which recently saw the Greenidge Generation power plant open its facilities to a bitcoin mining project. He’s worried that crypto mining uses far too much electricity, and he thinks the arena is taking the planet down a dark hole that it’s not likely to leave in the future.

In an interview, Williams said:

We have to have the will to force these companies, if that’s what they’re going to do, they have to do it in a more climate friendly way.

Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is how Eric Adams – the newly-elected mayor of New York City – is going to take this news if Williams becomes governor of the state. Adams has shown himself in recent weeks to be a major cryptocurrency fan, even going so far as to convert several of his mayoral checks into both bitcoin and Ethereum through Coinbase.

He has often gotten in online banter with Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami, about which city holds more promise for the future of crypto. Adams has also stated he wants to see bitcoin and blockchain technology taught in New York public schools so kids can be prepared for the future of payments.

With such a heavy ban on crypto mining and related activity, Adams could find himself dealing with a political enemy within his own party.

But to be fair to Williams, he has a lot of people on his side, including mega industry heads such as Elon Musk of Tesla fame. About a year ago, the South African entrepreneur shocked the world when he announced that he would permit the purchasing of electric vehicles with bitcoin. From there, the currency rose to about $57,000 per unit – the highest it had ever been up to that point – and many were convinced that a new crypto threshold had been crossed.

Ending BTC Payments for Car Buyers

Sadly, things didn’t last, as just a few weeks later, Musk stated he was rescinding the decision as he wasn’t sure that bitcoin miners were using their energy well and he didn’t want to be responsible for the planet’s destruction.

Kevin O’Leary of “Shark Tank” fame was also quick to chime in. He stated that he would no longer be purchasing bitcoin mined in China given that the country was not known to employ environmentally friendly extraction methods.

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