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California Co. upsets Cherokee County, NC
Following protests in the far west of the state over noise and other disruptions caused by cryptocurrency mining, Buncombe County extended a one-year extension his temporary ban on such operations.
County officials say they are struggling with how to write rules that protect residents from problems those who have experienced include constant noise, Styrofoam and electronic waste.
“The US Congress is still wrestling with how exactly to regulate the industry itself. There is a patchwork of regulations in all 50 US states. We, however, are looking at the issue from a land use perspective ” said county Planning and Development Director Nathan Pennington. he said at a May 7 Board of Commissioners meeting.
Commissioners voted unanimously to extend the ban – which ended May 1 – to April 30, 2025.
Bitcoin and other types of cryptocurrency mining require no practice; instead they use a warehouse full of specialized computers and other equipment to complete billions of calculations every second in an attempt to win some sort of lottery against other miners. The winner verifies a block of transactions that are added to the blockchain, the virtual registers at the base cryptocurrencies. For their work, miners receive a package of virtual coins that can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The process can use huge amounts of electricity and water to run the equipment and keep it cool. China banned mining in 2021. Cherokee, the state’s farthest western county with hundreds of thousands of acres of unstable forests and few land regulations, saw residents outraged in 2019, when cryptocurrency mines start setting up shop and fill the day and night with the hum and hum of industrial fans. Other problems include the local landfill dealing with large quantities of electronic waste and polystyrene packaging material.
Along with Buncombe, Madison County − a place also known for its aversion to land use regulations − used a moratorium to buy time to write mine protections.
Demand for trades fluctuates wildly due to the “wildly speculative” nature of the cryptocurrency, Pennington, Buncombe’s director of planning and development, told commissioners on May 7.
Extending the moratorium will give the county time to figure out how to write rules that limit mining without violating data centers, he said.
“Data centers are an integral part of life and commerce in the United States,” Pennington said. “Buncombe County has two data centers that run our operations. The same goes for the National Climatic Data Center,” Pennington said.
Commissioner Terri Wells, who will run Nov. 5 for the county’s new West, North and Northeast District 2 against unaffiliated Bruce O’Connell, said the caution was warranted.
“I think it’s wise to research everything we’re about to do and make sure we think about it carefully,” Wells said.
Moreover: Ethics Committee fines Cawthorn for promoting cryptocurrencies in which he had financial interests
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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. Do you have advice? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help us support this type of journalism with a subscription at the Citizen Times.