Iceland Lawmaker Suggests Tax On Bitcoin Miners

Due to Iceland being a hotspot for cryptocurrency mining operations, thanks to the abundance of energy and natural cooling provided by arctic air, one lawmaker has suggested taxing on companies that mine Bitcoin.

Smari McCarthy justified this tax because “"Under normal circumstances, companies that are creating value in Iceland pay a certain amount of tax to the government. These companies are not doing that, and we might want to ask ourselves whether they should.”

McCarthy claims that these companies use “maybe hundreds of megawatts” obtaining a product that brings no value to Iceland’s market. The current trend of energy production would make these mining companies use more electricity than all of Iceland’s homes, which is a cause of concern to the local government.

According to the BBC “[Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson, manager at Icelandic energy firm Hitaveita Sudurnesja] expects Bitcoin mining operations will use around 840 gigawatt hours of electricity to supply data centre computers and cooling systems, for example. He estimated that the county's homes, in contrast, use around 700 gigawatt hours every year.”

Written for libertarianvindicator.com

Sources:
https://www.coindesk.com/icelandic-lawmaker-floats-bitcoin-mining-tax/
https://sputniknews.com/business/201802121061571130-iceland-bitcoin-mining-tax-energy/
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43030677