The court, led by Judge Michael Tammen, concluded that the ban does not violate any laws. The decision came after BC Hydro, an energy corporation, introduced a ban on supplying electricity to cryptocurrency mining operations due to concerns about excessive energy consumption. The company argued that the amount of electricity required for cryptocurrency mining in 2023 would exceed its capacity to provide. The judge agreed that this measure is necessary to prevent overloading the energy system.
The moratorium on new miners joining the network was implemented by BC Hydro in December 2022. Consequently, British Columbia became the third Canadian province to introduce such measures. However, the ban was contested by Conifex Timber, a logging company that had recently embarked on cryptocurrency mining in collaboration with the Tsai Keh Dene Indian community.
The management of Conifex Timber expressed disappointment at the court’s decision, believing that the province is missing out on numerous opportunities due to the mining ban. They argued that allowing mining could foster technological innovation and contribute to economic growth in British Columbia.
It is worth noting that similar bans on mining have been proposed or implemented in other regions. For instance, authorities in the US state of North Carolina have suggested a one-year ban on mining, while New York has already enforced a two-year ban on mining cryptocurrencies that utilize the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm.