Sweden consistently ranks among the happiest countries in the world by the happy police but now seems none too pleased with how certain data centre businesses operate within its borders. To outsiders like myself, the country is known for high car safety scorings and assembled furniture brands, but it also holds a surprising title in the Bitcoin world—it is a prime destination for mining in Europe and, at its peak, produced nearly 2% of the global hash rate.This unlikely title stemmed from a unique combination of factors, but recent policy changes have cast doubt on Sweden’s future as a Bitcoin hub in Europe.Western Europe’s top three hash rate producers are Germany, Ireland, and Sweden. Yet now it looks like the happiest country is not interested in competing anymore and is blowing up local operations, like a certain pipeline that flowed through the Baltic, but we’ll get to that.While not actively kicking miners out as we saw in China with a straight-up ban, the soft power of taxes is used to pressure miners to shut off and ship out.
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