According to the deputy head of the Russian Energy Ministry, “miners have increased their electricity consumption by 14% over the past two years”, using all the available electricity capacity of some regions.
Ban bitcoin mining in certain regions of Russia. According to RBC, the country's 24-hour economic news television channel, Moscow would like to put an end to the mining of the queen of cryptocurrencies. The government accuses the miners “of having exhausted all available electrical capacity in certain regions (such as Buryatia and Irkutsk – Editor's note) thus causing power cuts.”
“If we say that mining is the precursor of digitalization, then mining will soon be banned at the state level in some regions,” said Deputy Head of the Ministry of Energy Evgeny Grabchak during a discussion on digitalization at the RBC Tech forum, which took place on October 30. He clarified that this ban would affect both professional and individual minors.
According to him, “miners have increased their electricity consumption by 14% over the last two years, using all the available capacity in the region.” He says regional authorities, the private sector and industry now face frequent power cuts. He also warned that an increase in the price of electricity was also expected.
Ban mining
The Energy Minister had previously proposed introducing a ban on bitcoin mining in Russian regions with low energy consumption during periods of electricity shortage.
Vladimir Putin signed a law on October 26, authorizing the government to ban cryptocurrency mining in certain regions of Russia or in certain territories, as well as to regulate the activities of mining infrastructure operators. This law came into force on November 1.
