IMF executives propose raising electricity prices for cryptocurrency mining by 85%

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Fiscal Affairs Department, Shafik Hebous, and economist Nate Vernon-Lin from the Climate Policy Department stated that a tax of 0.047 yuan per kilowatt-hour "will drive the cryptocurrency mining industry to curb its emissions in line with global goals." If the impact of miners on local health is taken into account, the tax will rise to 0.089 dollars per kilowatt-hour. Increasing taxes will raise the average electricity price for crypto miners by 85%, generate an additional 5.2 billion dollars in global government revenue annually, and reduce emissions by 100 million tons per year, equivalent to Belgium's emissions.

They claimed that the electricity consumed by a single Bitcoin transaction is roughly equivalent to the average electricity usage of a Pakistani person over three years, while the energy required for the AI model ChatGPT is ten times that of a Google search. The two also proposed a 0.032 dollars per kilowatt-hour energy usage tax on AI data centers, which would rise to 0.052 dollars when accounting for pollution costs, as "these data centers are often located in areas with greener electricity." IMF officials stated that this tax could generate 18 billion dollars in revenue for the government each year.