Putin pointed to the threat of power outages in the regions due to cryptocurrency mining

During a meeting on economic issues, Putin touched on the issue of uncontrolled cryptocurrency mining in Russia, which could lead to a shortage of capacity in some regions. According to him, difficulties are already observed in Buryatia, the Irkutsk region and the Trans-Baikal Territory.

“Colleagues from the regions directly express their concerns in this regard. I agree with them. Obviously: if there is no free energy, if it is “selected” by so-called mining farms, then new businesses, residential areas and social facilities will face supply disruptions, electricity shortages, and promising investment and infrastructure projects will be put on hold,” TASS quotes Vladimir Putin as saying.

He also stressed that cryptocurrencies are not monetary units in the usual sense. At the same time, their popularity as a means of payment in cross-border payments is growing.

At the same time, mining can be done from anywhere in the world, but the process consumes a lot of electricity.

According to calculations by the Ministry of Energy, to which Putin refers, 16 billion kilowatt-hours are spent on cryptocurrency mining in the Russian Federation every year, which is 1.5% of the country’s total consumption.

Amid abnormally hot weather in central and southern Russia, several million residents in the south were left without electricity. The cause was a failure at one of the reactors at the Rostov nuclear power plant. A schedule of temporary power outages has been introduced in Krasnodar and Crimea.