Bitcoin Mining Can be a Force for Good or Bad, Banning it Doesn’t Solve Anything – FTX.US President

cryptonews.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) mining can be a force for both good and bad, depending on how it’s done and where it happens. But countries thinking of banning it should know that miners will not hesitate to simply move somewhere else, FTX.US president Brett Harrison said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

Speaking during a panel discussion with crypto investors, researchers, and other stakeholders in Davos, Harrison made it clear that banning crypto mining is not a viable solution, and should not be pursued by those who are concerned about crypto mining’s carbon footprint.

“There are some cases where Bitcoin mining is a force for good, helping to stabilize a renewable grid, and there are some cases where it’s a force for bad where it is driving up energy prices in a local town,” Harrison said.

He added that if a country was to “outright ban it,” then that country will not have the chance to regulate mining for the better, “and it just moves somewhere else.”

“This is what we saw in China when they banned mining, it moved immediately,” Harrison said. He added that part of the mining moved to America where it used a mix of renewables and natural gas, and “a lot of it” moved to Kazakhstan where it was powered by coal, “which is much worse than the hydro that was happening in China.”

Asked about how people can come to a common understanding of which consensus mechanisms are good and which ones are bad, and why the different “tribes” of the crypto community are against each other, Harrison said that this bears many similarities to politics.

“I think what you see online and on Twitter about these different consensus mechanisms is not too different from what you see in any kind of political debate. You see a very vocal