Norway Proposes Data Center Law to Filter Bitcoin Mining

The Norwegian government has proposed a law to regulate the data center industry and filter out bitcoin mining activities.

According to a news report published on Monday by local media outlet VG, Norway’s ministries of digitalization and energy have proposed what they claim to be the first regulation in Europe to govern the data center industry.

If passed into effect, the proposed law will require data center operators in the country to register and report the personnel and entities behind and the type of services they offer. The goal is to separate what the government calls “socially beneficial data centers” from bitcoin mining projects.

“We need to know more about which data centers we have, what they contain, and what they do. Today we have no overview, “Digitalization Minister Karianne Tung was quoted as saying.

According to the local report, with such information, the government will have better knowledge to decide whether they want to say yes or no to a data center establishment in their municipalities.

Although the proposed law does not appear to be an outright ban on bitcoin mining in Norway yet, it signals an unwelcoming message.

The Energy Minister, Terje Aasland, was quoted in the report stating that cryptocurrency is a type of data center business that “we do not want in Norway.”

As previously reported, Bitdeer is one of the few companies that have established mining activities in the Nordic country. The firm recently acquired the landlords whom it was leasing land from to operate its miners.

Note: quotes have been Google translated from the original article.