US Senate To Have A Hearing on Blockchain’s Energy Efficiency

BTC Wires: In the coming week, the Senate of the United States is planning to consider and evaluate the question of how energy efficient blockchain technology really is. According to a public announcement made on 16th August, 2018, Thursday, a hearing is slated to be held on 21st of August on the same. The hearing is to be hosted by the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and will be on the topic “Energy Efficiency of Blockchain and Similar Technologies”. This discussion and hearing is expected to help Senators delve deeper into one of 21st century’s trendiest technologies and understand how the industry can affect prices of electricity or what positive effects it can bring to the table.

As the announcement stated, the hearing is aimed towards considering how energy efficient blockchain and allied technologies are. In addition, it will also explore the question of applying such novel technologies in the energy industry or in the field of cybersecurity. As it continued, the event will focus on answering a question that is now on everybody’s mind: will the higher demand for electricity in blockchain applications lead to an increase in overall electricity prices as well? This event will also make an attempt to discover whether blockchain and related technologies really do have the potential to add enhanced functionalities to existing online security systems, especially of the computer networks connected to energy supply.

The event is supposed to have a full committee hearing, which means that all 23 members may be expected to attend it. The announcement told us that there would be some witnesses present to testify in the hearing, but did not reveal any details as to the names of witnesses expected to take the stand.

Interestingly, this is the first time the Senate is seeing one of its committees directly focus on how blockchain can play a role in transforming the energy space although some past hearings had delved into related issues such as the regulations to be put in place for monitoring cryptocurrency firms and initial coin offerings in the sector.