On January 20, the Bank of Russia issued a report proposing to ban the mining, issuance, circulation and exchange of cryptocurrencies in Russia. According to the Central Bank, digital assets are a risk to the country’s economy. One of the most discussed items was the ban on mining in Russia, despite the fact that the country ranks third in the world for bitcoin mining. We talked to experts to find out how the ban will affect the miners and whether the Bank of Russia will be able to implement its plans.
In total, miners earn $ 1.5 billion a year from bitcoin mining alone! Mining other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Monero, brings crypto farm owners a total of $ 2.5 billion annually. This was stated by CEO of BitRiver mining company Igor Runes .
This question was answered by Evgeny Romanenko , economist of the Austrian school, host of crypto-events, ambassador of the crypto-wallet Trustee Wallet:
Remember why Elon Musk ended up banning bitcoin payments for Tesla cars? Yes, cryptocurrency mining is a dangerous activity for the environment. A study by Chinese scientists, which, incidentally, refers to the Bank of Russia, confirmed that the carbon footprint of bitcoin mining in China is comparable to the amount of carbon dioxide emissions of the metropolis.
Russia has not yet conducted such research but considered how energy consumption has grown in Irkutsk, the unspoken capital of mining. The region has the lowest electricity prices. The report of the Bank of Russia states that in 2021 ” the number of personal accounts of the population with abnormally high electricity consumption increased by 62% .” This significantly increases the risk of accidents at power plants, according to the regulator.
