Sweden is worried about the amount of energy consumed by crypto miners, with the Minister of Energy Khashayar Farmanbar stating that their economy is transitioning “from a period of administration to an extreme expansion where [their] entire manufacturing industry is seeking to electrify.” As noted by Bloomberg, the official said "[they] need energy for more useful things than bitcoin."
The affordable electricity produced in Sweden is thanks to their hydro basins and wind parks that provide clean and inexpensive electricity. It has attracted many crypto miners instead of the intended audience of big companies such as Microsoft and Facebook.
Two options have been talked about to help solve this problem. The first one is to change the amount of power output and redirect it toward the companies that could create more working positions. The second option is restraining the preferential tax treatment that all data centers enjoy at the moment.
It was suggested to ban proof-of-work (PoW) mining because it consumes a vast amount of energy but was later written out of the upcoming draft. Sweden's steel industry wants to make fossil-free production and insists that they need the energy more. Tomas Hirsch, head of energy at SSAB said: “We could reduce Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions by 10%.” SSAB also thinks that industrial projects like theirs should be prioritized instead of on a first-come, first-served basis.
Like many other countries in the world, Sweden is facing several crypto issues. Because Sweden has such a good renewable energy source, it attracts many crypto miners since they see this as an opportunity to use quite a lot of energy at a low cost.
