(3) As was planed by the EU Commission in 2022, the same approach has also been taken by certain political groups in the European Parliament, and by the EP’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) in its May 2023 study “Remaining regulatory challenges in digital finance and crypto-assets after MiCA” :

“While some crypto models waste energy and are inherently exclusive in nature, others are highly energy efficient and inclusive in that customers with low degrees of financial and technical literacy may participate. For instance, developers claim that the Ethereum Merge, a major software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain in September 2022, reduced the Ethereum blockchain’s energy usage by 99.95 per cent. At the same time, another upgrade dubbed “the Surge” will reduce costs and enhance speed and system stability. While these upgrades clearly show the potential of technological innovation, the absence of similar upgrades to the Bitcoin blockchain are deeply regrettable.”