Swedish financial regulators and the European Commission have discussed the possibility of banning the proof-of-work technology that underpins bitcoin due to its environmental impact, according to documents published by website netzpolitik.org .

The revelation comes after lawmakers at the European Parliament came close to passing restrictions on the energy-hungry technology which some characterized as a bitcoin ban.

Documents apparently released under the EU's freedom-of-information laws show that a November meeting between Swedish financial and environmental regulators and the European Commission's digital-policy arm discussed banning trading in crypto assets such as bitcoin that use the proof-of-work technique.

An unnamed attendee said that bitcoin should be encouraged to move towards a more environmentally friendly alternative such as proof-of-stake, as rivals such as Ethereum have done, and didn't "see [the] need to 'protect' the bitcoin community."

Parts of the document have been redacted to protect individual privacy or due to "ongoing decision-making process," suggesting that policy is still being developed on the topic. Swedish officials have previously made it clear that they want to ban the technology for environmental reasons.

A separate document suggested discussions were still ongoing in February, and were also joined by German environment ministry officials.