Kazakhstan has confiscated nearly $200 million in mining equipment from unregistered miners | The Blockarchive.ph/k7fxG
41 sats \ 9 comments \ @BTCMiner 15 Mar 2022 bitcoin
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22 sats \ 2 replies \ @DarthCoin 15 Mar 2022
Fuuuck... this is bad. really bad for Bitcoin.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @Majjin 16 Mar 2022
What's the worry here? 51% attack?
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5 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCMiner OP 16 Mar 2022
If most mining activity (hashrate) is done in a few countries, then yes -- a government ordered 51% attack becomes more easily performed since the hashrate sources are more easily identified and controlled.
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5 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryptocoin 16 Mar 2022
The topic of this development in Kazakhstan was covered on Simply Bitcoin podcast, E450:
🎧 Bitcoin Mining UNDER ATTACK! Kazakhstan Seizes $200M Bitcoin Miners - EP 450 | Simply Bitcoin #14785
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2 sats \ 4 replies \ @BTCMiner OP 15 Mar 2022
Kazakhstan's Financial Monitoring Agency reported on its overall work to bring the local mining industry to heel. Among its most striking figures is that the agency says it has confiscated mining equipment worth roughly 100 billion tenge, valued at $194 million USD.
The Financial Monitoring Agency also reported that it had registered 25 previously illegal businesses. 55 mining companies have voluntarily closed down, while the agency has forced 51 more to end their activities.
Kazakhstan's struggle with its mining industry is a relatively recent phenomenon. A flood of miners entered the country starting early last year when China outlawed mining writ large.
While the Kazakh government has not followed suit with a full ban on mining, energy shortages late last year yet the country to implement new registration requirements on taxes on cryptocurrency miners.
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @BTCMiner OP 15 Mar 2022
For this post, an archive was used so as to not have any paywall, and no subscription requirement. The link to the article is:
Kazakhstan has confiscated nearly $200 million in mining equipment from unregistered miners https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/137902/kazakhstan-has-confiscated-nearly-200-million-in-mining-equipment-from-unregistered-miners
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @BTCMiner OP 15 Mar 2022
Another article on the topic:
The report claims that a number of well known businessmen and officials had direct ties to a number of these mining farms. The list includes: Bolat Nazarbayev, Alexander Klebanov, Kairat Sharipbayev, Erlan Nigmatullin, as well as other affiliates of Kairat Itemgenov (one of the richest businessmen in Kazakhstan).
Various greenhouse companies sold their surplus electricity to unlicensed miners and are now subject to investigation. Mining hardware imports are also reported to have come from South Korea, Singapore, Turkey, and Georgia.
Massive Mining Farm Shutdowns In Kazakhstan https://www.btctimes.com/news/massive-mining-farm-shutdowns-in-kazakhstan
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @BTCMiner OP 15 Mar 2022
And this article as well:
“We have not been able to operate properly since October 13, when the first power cuts hit us,” he told Rest of World. “And we are kept in the dark as to when we would be able to work at full capacity or what solutions the power grid operator, KEGOC, is going to come up with.”
In September 2021, when China banned all cryptocurrency-related activity, it reshaped an industry for which it had provided a haven. Miners scrambled into crypto-friendly Kazakhstan, propelling the country into world’s second-biggest Bitcoin production base, by one estimate.
But six months later, the industry is already being pushed out. Facing civil unrest and blackouts on the electricity grid, the government has throttled the power supply of the miners it once welcomed.
Smaller players can either flee somewhere like Russia — a risky jurisdiction, whose hostile politics would imply another temporary home — or, for bigger outfits, swallow higher costs to join the swelling ranks in the U.S., where the mining industry is clearly beginning to concentrate.
From January 1, it imposed a tax of one tenge (0.20 cents) per kilowatt-hour on registered miners; by February, legislators were already pushing a proposal to increase it tenfold to 10 tenge per kWh. The same month, digital development minister, Bağdat Musin, labeled unregistered mining an “economic crime.”
Some of the country’s biggest crypto miners have already fled for greener pastures.
Illegal miners can operate covertly in densely populated urban areas, camouflaged by general use.
The department also relies on public tipoffs; a WhatsApp hotline has been implemented, along with the offer of monetary rewards. On Facebook, the digital minister has implored people to report on any suspicious mining-adjacent activity.
“We’ve already received offers to relocate to Russia, but we are also considering Argentina and Chile as possible options.”
“It’s a mess”: How crypto mining went from boom to bust in Kazakhstan https://restofworld.org/2022/crypto-miners-fleeing-kazakhstan
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Brunswick1 16 Mar 2022
Bitcoin mining is being treated like cooking meth. This smells of state-regulated electricity price controls. Why are the miners causing blackouts if the electric suppliers are free to charge whatever they want for electricity? It seems to me a progressive electric price would solve this problem. If the miners are using their machines for heating their homes, where they would be heating them with electricity otherwise, I would think the government shouldn't care.
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