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California co. becomes Cherokee County, NC
After uproar in the far west of the state over noise and other disruptions caused by cryptocurrency mining, Buncombe County extended a one-year extension its temporary ban about such operations.
County officials say they are struggling to write rules that will protect residents from problems that those who have experienced them say include constant noise, as well as Styrofoam and electronic waste.
“The US Congress is still struggling to decide how exactly to regulate the industry itself. There is a patchwork of regulations in all 50 US states. We, however, are looking at this from a land use perspective” , said Nathan Pennington, the county’s Director of Planning and Development. said at a May 7 Board of Commissioners meeting.
Commissioners voted unanimously to extend the ban — which ended May 1 — until April 30, 2025.
Bitcoin and other types of cryptocurrency mining do not require exercise; Instead, they use a warehouse full of specialized computers and other equipment to complete billions of calculations every second in an attempt to win a sort of lottery against other miners. The winner verifies a block of transactions that are added to the blockchain, the virtual books that support cryptocurrencies. For their work, miners receive a bundle of virtual coins that can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The process can use immense amounts of electricity and water to operate the equipment and keep it cool. China banned mines in 2021. Cherokee, the state’s westernmost county with hundreds of thousands of acres of unstable forest and few land regulations, saw outraged residents in 2019, when cryptocurrency mines began to set up shop and filled the day and night with the hum of industrial fans. Other problems include the local landfill struggling with large amounts of electronic and Styrofoam packaging waste.
Along with Buncombe, Madison County − a place also known for its dislike of land use regulations − used a moratorium to buy time to write mine protections.
Demand for operations fluctuates wildly because of the “extremely speculative” nature of cryptocurrency, Pennington, director of planning and development at Buncombe, told commissioners on May 7.
Extending the moratorium will give the county time to figure out how to write rules that restrict mines without infringing on data centers, he said.
“Data centers are essential to life and commerce in the U.S.,” said Pennington. “Buncombe County has two data centers that manage our operations. The same goes for the National Climatic Data Center,” Pennington said.
Commissioner Terri Wells, who is running Nov. 5 for the county’s new West, North and Northeast District 2 against unaffiliated Bruce O’Connell, said caution is needed.
“I think it’s wise for us to want to research everything we’re about to do and make sure we think it through carefully,” Wells said.
More: Ethics Committee Fines Cawthorn for Promoting Cryptocurrency in Which He Had a Financial Interest
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Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He has written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Have a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a enrollment for the Citizen Times.