How France's far right is betting on cryptocurrencies
During a visit to the Flamanville nuclear power plant in Normandy on March 11, the three-time presidential candidate expressed her support for using surplus electricity generated by reactors to "mine" bitcoin. The plan would involve installing powerful computers at the sites of French energy giant EDF to perform complex calculations, which, repeated numerous times, would contribute to the secure digital chain, or blockchain, behind the technology, in exchange for payment in newly created bitcoins (currently trading at over €100,000).
"It is a secure and extremely profitable solution," said RN lawmaker Aurélien Lopez-Liguori, who was tasked in July with drafting the idea into a bill. "Our logic is the opposite of the Greens. For them, the most environmentally friendly energy is that which is not produced; for us, it is the energy that is not wasted."
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