The Russian Ministry of Energy is considering offering its now strictly regulated Bitcoin mining industry incentives to move to the north of the country.
The move follows Russia slapping a Bitcoin mining ban on ten regions (mainly in the south) in January of this year: Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia, Chechnya, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
The ban is set to remain in place until March 15, 2031, and the government is exploring plans to expand the restrictions to new regions.
Russia—with its relatively cold weather and cheap energy supplies—was historically one of the world’s top Bitcoin mining hubs. But it has increasingly suffered energy shortages since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, causing local blackouts and prompting the government to try and regulate the industry to ease the pressure.
Russia’s Deputy Minister of Energy, Yevgeny Grabchak, suggested in an interview with state news outlet TASS that Bitcoin miners could repurpose the “common capacity” of unused power grid centers in northern Russia that were previously used for oil production.
“The resources of the fields have been depleted, but the power centers have been preserved and can be used by miners on a long-term basis if they benefit the economy and the energy system of the region,” he said.
Regions highlighted for expansion include “the entire north, part of the northwest, and some parts of the Volga region.”
The minister did not outline firm plans in terms of the next steps, only that the agency was in discussions with miners about relocation.
Is Russia’s mining ban working?
The initiative to ban mining in southern regions has had some success so far in terms of lowering stress on the electricity grid. The government claims that the ban has saved more than 300 MW so far—enough to power a small city.
That is not to say that these Bitcoin mining restrictions have proved especially popular in Russia. Some analysts have said moves to ban mining may cause missed opportunities for economic development and investment in poor regions.
Other Russians have highlighted that the mining ban has been misrepresented in Western media. Denis Rusinovich, a partner at the Cryptocurrency Mining Group, claimed that many large corporate miners are, in practice, still allowed to operate in these regions. He told The Mining Pod the ban is only being enforced in the case of smaller unregulated miners or private individuals.
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