By Nathan Ferguson
The Energy Ministry of Kazakhstan declared to have identified as well as blocked 13 crypto mining activities. The country’s government performed a shutdown as included in its endeavors to implement a regulation over the BTC (Bitcoin) mining space, which has escalated to a great extent due to the substantial fame thereof during the recent years. According to the official statement, a considerable amount of energy was being utilized on the behalf of the miners as the cumulative power consumption touched nearly 202 megawatts.
The Kazakh authorities state that their attempts to detect as well as block the farms of crypto mining from having electricity access will continuously get going. After the identification of illegal mining activities, the authorized officials will be permitted to take adequate investigatory as well as operational measures. Being at the position of the second-biggest producer of Bitcoin after the execution of the crypto crackdown on the behalf of China, Kazakhstan’s energy consumption has spiked considerably.
It was formerly reported that the country was responsible for manufacturing more than 18% hash rate of Bitcoin across the world till August of the previous year, being second only to the United States. In advance of the Chinese crackdowns on crypto, in April, the respective figure was at only 8%.
Kazakh president provided a green signal to the implementation of tax over the mining of Bitcoin, probably promoting the anti-BTC attitude of China. In the last year, because of the hostility of the Chinese authorities, the Bitcoin mining businesses of China such as BTC.com and Canaan were shifted to Kazakhstan.
Even though a keen concentration has been provided by the mining industry to the country for quite a while, a decrease is being witnessed in the hash rate thereof because of several reasons, as per the executives of the sector. As a result of this, Kazakhstan may lose its position as being among the three prominent countries in the matter of crypto mining in the forthcoming index update, anticipated to be issued during the next month.
On 8th February, the president of the country released a directive for the initiation of a cabinet-scale investigation over crypto mining, with Marat Sultangaziyev (the initial Finance Vice-Minister of Kazakhstan) suggesting an increase in the power prices for the miners of crypto. The reports point out that despite a relatively favorable stance of the president, miners are required to get licenses as well recompense the electricity bills along with taxes.