Bitcoin miners have become the new nomads. They are not after prey, they are after cheap energy. This made them emigrate from China to Kazakhstan, which promises to be the new bitcoin mining paradise. It’s been a few months, but now those expectations have collapsed and miners have to move out once again.

From China to Kazakhstan. China, the world’s largest bitcoin mining country for years, is fed up with it. Its leaders started persecuting all activities related to cryptocurrencies and this caused that industry to change.

The ideal target was Kazakhstan, which is “attached” to China and therefore facilitates the transport of machinery and has an apparently very positive policy for this activity. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced his intention to invest $1.2 billion over five years to attract the bitcoin mining industry. Energy was very cheap and regulation was absent or lax. a bicoca

Source: Rest of the World.

Energy wasn’t that cheap in the end. As noted on Rest of World, things went wrong when the power outages started. With the arrival of miners, demand increased significantly (7% per year) and the Department of Energy blamed the miners, stating that cutbacks in such activities will begin. It’s interesting that the government said me and then Diego because bitcoin mining has been known for years to be greedy to the end.

It didn’t stop there: taxes became a serious obstacle for miners. This activity made energy much more expensive for them: they first created a tax of 20 cents per kWh used in mining. The tax was increased tenfold in a month, and Baghdad Musin described the activities of miners who did not register this work as “economic crime”. Of course, not to mention the internet outages that took control of production at the beginning of the year.

Denis Rusinovich, co-founder of Cryptocurrency Mining Group (CMG), has been working to develop this industry in Kazakhstan since 2017, and as he put it, “we went from heroes to villains” (“We went from zero to hero”).

what happened in Kazakhstan. According to analysts, the cause of these outages and blackouts is not bitcoin mining, but rather a collapsing infrastructure from the Soviet era. There is also a smell of corruption, talk of a black market that allows power plants to reserve certain capacities for their own needs at a discounted price, and how certain companies can exploit these reserves through private deals, something that reduces the quantity. energy available for distribution.

The Kazakh government blames the miners and divides them into two groups. The “whites” who recorded their activities consumed 700 MW, but the government believes that the “gray” miners (who worked irregularly) consumed twice that figure. Meanwhile, some miners blame others and even a WhatsApp hotline has been created for informants who report gray miners in exchange for a reward.

we better go. All this means that the miners are starting to move in and leave the temporary Cossack paradise behind. The United States appears to be among the most popular destinations, strengthening its dominant position in this market. There, some are already staring at the wolf’s ears: miners in Texas need official approval before they can work.

Some are skeptical of Russia – not just because of the war in Ukraine: because its energy capacity is apparently “fair” – while others consider countries like Argentina or Chile.

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