[DickingAround]

If they really are low on power, for whatever reason, it's time to raise prices. I know people like fixing the price below what the actual market rate would be but it causes a lot of problems. And Europe in particular isn't doing itself any favors by shutting down clean nuke plants and relying on fossil fuel Russia, of all countries. They need to re-think how they're managing their energy before it's too late. And "we allowed someone to use their computer a lot so let's ban that" is not a root cause here.

[fogihujy]

No doubt about it; shutting down the nuclear plants ahead of schedule was simply a bad decision, and I don't think anyone is claiming that crypto actually caused the current energy crisis in Europe.

It's a mess caused by a whole lot of varying factors, ranging from public utilities being sold out to international cartels who pocketed the income without investing in grid improvements, to the EV rollouts, to power plants being decomissioned. On top of that, you have Russia flexing their muscles, and if that conflict somehow escalates then Russian gas imports will be weaponized. I suspect the EU would like to be the ones doing the weaponizing and that means reducing the energy usage and fast.

Under those circumstances, proof-of-work crypto is simply low-hanging fruit and banning it will have a relatively large impact with a fairly small number of people being hit. People will prefer that to even higher energy prices, regardless if it's morally right or not.