Russia has become an important player in the global cryptocurrency mining game, ranking among the big players in the industry. As Chinese miners flee the country and reportedly flock to Russia, the country’s Energy Ministry is seeking to charge them more for electricity. The energy minister has proposed imposing higher fees for the block reward miners, a move that would see them recognized as a legitimate business activity.
Russia is the third-largest home to crypto miners.
According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Russia is the third-largest home to crypto miners. It reportedly contributes as much as 11% of the global BTC hash rate, ranking behind the U.S., the new leader, and second-placed to Kazakhstan at 35.4% and 18%, respectively. Russia now wants to charge these miners more than the households. Speaking on the sidelines of the Russian Energy Week, Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said that his ministry was working on new proposals that would seek to extract more from the miners.
Crypto miners should pay more than households’ rates for electricity.
“To maintain the reliability and quality of power supply, we believe it is necessary to exclude the possibility of electricity consumption by miners at tariffs for the population,” Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov stated. The minister claimed that crypto miners had been gobbling up huge amounts of electricity at the expense of the households. In the Irkutsk Oblast region, which is located in southeastern Siberia, there have been complaints about the surge of block reward miners who have been cited as the cause of power outages. Governor Igor Kobzev recently complained to the Energy Ministry about the miners, saying that in the past year, energy consumption has shot up by 159% as crypto mining activities increase in the region.
