Plattsburgh, New York Bans Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Mining. As cryptocurrencies become harder to mine and the rewards for mining blocks become less fruitful, added electrical costs are required to help with getting currencies mined. This has led to some concerns in parts of the world where it actually costs more to mine cryptocurrencies than what those currencies are actually worth. The costs are being made worse by the ongoing drop in the cryptocurrency market as coins of all sorts are becoming less valuable.

One American town has become the first in the country to outlaw the act of cryptocurrency mining. The town of Plattsburgh, New York has announced that cryptocurrency mining is not allowed within the city’s limits. This is only a temporary ban though.

The Plattsburgh city council announced an 18-month ban on cryptocurrency mining in the city. There is a potential for the ban to be removed in the future, but it would not be considered until after the 18-month period expires.

This move comes not long after the New York State Public Service Commission announced that local power companies have the right to charge extra amounts of money against cryptocurrency miners due to how they use more power than most other people. Much of this is thanks to such miners using more power than others. The added electrical use is forcing average energy bills to increase due to the added drain on local electric grids. The commission states that average electricity bills in Plattsburgh went up by about $10 in January due to mining actions.

Strong Competition

There are still some cryptocurrency mining activities taking place in some other areas around northeastern New York State with the town of Massena working to get power off of a hydroelectric dam around the St. Lawrence River. The renewable energy from the dam may help with keeping the burden on local power grids from being significant.

Plattsburgh is also located not too far from the border with Quebec, thus adding to the possible competition the city might lose out on. Quebec has become a popular place for cryptocurrency mining in recent time thanks to how the Canadian province has numerous hydroelectric dams. However, the province is struggling to meet the newfound demand for mining functions in that area.

Expenses For Mining Might Increase

The ban has come as there are concerns over how the cost for mining such currencies might go up. With equations for mining bitcoins becoming more complicated, there will be a need for more powerful mining computers that use more energy to make it easier for those blocks to be produced effectively. Also, the rewards that come from each block are declining in value over time, thus making it so more blocks would have to be produced.

However, the cost to mine a bitcoin is estimated at around $8,000, a concern given that the bitcoin has been hanging around that value in recent time. Concerns about the changing value of the bitcoin might make it harder for the currency to be mined properly and to be made available to more people after a while.

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