Kosovo pulls hold of bitcoin miners amid energy crisis

Kosovo wants to face the current energy crisis in the best possible way and, to reduce the bill, the miners of cryptocurrency
are on the front line.

A measure which has the effect of cascading sales of the equipment necessary for mining in the country.

In the heart of the Balkans, cryptos are (temporarily) no longer queens

Kosovo is usually rather serene about its energy, thanks to a massive internal supply (90%) of lignite, a sedimentary rock close to coal, which prevents it from being forced to undergo international market fluctuations. While this energy supply is (particularly) far from being carbon neutral, a breakdown of one of the two power stations led the government to have to source nearly 40% of its energy from international markets, particularly strained.

To lower the electricity bill in his country, one of the poorest on the European continent, the government is banking on a 60-day ban on all mining activity. An injunction which gives the curious effect of a panic sale of many personal installations dedicated to the mining of crypto-currencies, while the measure is only temporary.

Added to this are the tense relations with the population of Serbian origin located in the north of the country, which does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state, as recalled The Guardian. In particular, it refuses, and has for more than 20 years, to pay for the electricity it consumes.

Mining, although difficult to quantify, is constantly growing in Kosovo, and the annual global consumption of electricity dedicated to Bitcoin alone, of the order of 126 TWh, has therefore prompted the government to act in this direction.

Do not waste the precious Kosovar public money

Remember, for information purposes, that these data should be compared with the annual electricity consumption of countries such as Norway (122 TWh) or Argentina (121 TWh). This decision is therefore a evidence for Kosovo’s Minister of Economy, Dr. Artane Rizvanolli: ” We have allocated 20 million euros to subsidize energy, which will probably not be enough, and it is taxpayers’ money that will subsidize electricity consumption. On the other hand, we have cryptocurrency mining, which is a very energy-intensive activity and is unregulated. “.

Enough to follow in the footsteps of countries such as Iceland, where potential crypto miners are no longer welcome to deal with energy shortages. On the other hand, Kosovo has no plans, in the short term at least, to follow in the footsteps of China, which put a big blow in the wing to the mining of crypto-currencies, while the Middle Kingdom was doing world leader in the field.

Source: The Guardian