Norway seeks to restrict the activities of miners. The government has introduced legislation to regulate data centers in order to categorize them as either “socially useful” or engaging in “undesirable” activities. Officials classify mining in the latter category due to the lack of regulation concerning cryptocurrency transactions and environmental concerns.
Mining as such is not prohibited in the country, but authorities intend to achieve greater control over the activities of data centers where cryptocurrency mining equipment is housed. Local media quote Minister of Energy Terje Aasland, who explicitly states that mining is the type of activity that “Norway does not need.”