Sweden favors making steel over mining bitcoin as power gets scarce: Bloomberg 

Sweden’s Energy Minister Khashayar Farmanbar told Bloomberg in an interview that it was more important to provide electricity for job-creating projects like steel plants than for bitcoin miners that are using big amounts of power.

“We need energy for more useful things than bitcoin, to be honest,” Bloomberg cited Farmanbar saying in a report published today.

Bitcoin miners operate banks of energy-intensive computers and rely on cheap electricity, rather than on human labor.

The Swedish government last month asked the Energy Agency to track how much power is used for digital infrastructure, with a focus on crypto mining, Bloomberg said.

Farmanbar declined to say what measures he may take to curb mining. Still, the report said they may include arranging the order in which new power users get access to the grid so that those creating jobs receive preference.

The Swedish markets regulator in November called for a ban on energy-intensive crypto mining, which was followed by a similar comment in January by the vice chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority.

Hive Blockchain Technologies from Canada and Hong Kong-listed Genesis Mining are two companies active in Sweden. They didn’t respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment.

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