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| Cryptocurrency miners in Kazakhstan are suffering |
As the mining industry grows, crypto miners in Kazakhstan are facing widespread power shortages, according to a Financial Times report.
With the influx of miners from China, Kazakhstan is struggling with an overburdened power grid. China cracked down on cryptocurrencies earlier this year, banning crypto-based transactions in September.
According to the Financial Times report, electricity demand in Kazakhstan has increased by about 8% since the beginning of 2021, a sharp increase from the country's usual annual growth rate of 1% or 2%.
Research by the British Financial Times estimated that more than 87,849 energy-hungry miners were shipped from China to Kazakhstan.
According to data from the University of Cambridge, the country is now second only to the United States and is one of the regions with the most cryptocurrency mining.
The three largest coal-fired power plants in Kazakhstan were urgently closed last month.
In light of the power outages, the country's Energy Ministry is said to have started restricting the use of more than 100 megawatts of electricity to new mines within two years. But he later lifted this restriction on minors.
To avoid power outages, Kazakh network operator KEGOC has also warned that it has started legalizing 50 minors registered with the government.
Helped the influx of Chinese miners to cryptocurrency
Kazakh officials attribute the energy crisis to a rise in the number of unregistered minors. Those who mine cryptocurrency illegally.
Experts estimate that these miners consume 1,200 megawatts of the country's electricity grid.
From 2022, Kazakhstan will pay a fee for registered minors. This allows a distinction between registered and unregistered minors. To alleviate the lack of energy.
The state plans to charge a fee of $0.0023 per kilowatt to registered miners. But for now, Kazakhstan will have to rely on the Russian energy company Inter RAO. This should provide extra energy in the cold winter.