Crypto mining industry could double A senior Energy Ministry official said that in 2022, Russia’s electricity consumption could account for a share of the sector’s backing of legislation designed to regulate the sector, which is likely to be adopted this year.
According to the Russian Ministry of Energy, which predicts an increase in power consumption for cryptocurrency mining
, by the end of 2022, the share of cryptocurrency miners will exceed to Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Snickers. At a crypto conference hosted by business news portal RBC, government officials recalled last year’s figure was about 1%.
The power available for mining across a vast country will depend on the number of users who want to connect to the grid at a particular location, he added Snikkars. Certain regions of Russia, which the deputy minister cited Murmansk as an example, are currently offering unused power generation capacity to the cryptocurrency industry.
Snikkars explained that such resources are available in the way new power plants are built. He bases his decision to start construction on one of the nuclear plants, which could take up to 10 years, based on demand from potential consumers in the area. However, some projects are not ready to start on time or not at all, and as a result are not fully loaded with generating capacity.
Creating digital currencies by individuals also poses problems for increasing consumption in certain places where electricity prices are low, experts said. He stressed that the energy industry should take steps to ensure reliable supply to other users.
During the event, Pavel Snikkars also spoke about efforts to regulate cryptocurrency mining as a business activity, with his department’s support for a bill introduced in the lower house of the Russian parliament in mid-November. expressed.
A bill amending the current law “on digital financial assets” has not yet been approved by the Justice Department of the House of Representatives and reviewed by the Central Bank of Russia. At a forum, Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the parliament’s financial markets committee, said he hopes parliamentarians will pass the law by the end of the year.
Snikkars and Aksakov’s statements follow recent reports revealing increased demand for his mining devices in Russia over the past two months. In addition to power consumption, mining revenues have also increased in the years before this year’s crypto winter and sanctions over the war in Ukraine hit the Russian mining business.
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