Russia and Belarus introduce special electricity tariffs for crypto miners-mining Bitcoin messages

In order to obtain the reliability and quality of the power supply, it is necessary to exclude electricity consumption through miners to tariffs for the population.

The government official made it clear that electricity tariffs had to be differentiated. In his view, miners should not be allowed to use the preferred tariffs because the current situation can continue to deteriorate. Otherwise, cross -subsidization must be increased, which is unacceptable, the energy minister explained.

Shulginov's comments came after the governor of the Oblast Irkutsk, Igor Kobzev, recently complained to the deputy Russian Prime Minister Alexander Novak about illegal crypto-miner. Your actions, said Kobzev, is quoted by the Wedomosti business newspaper, increasing the stress of the Siberian region's power grid and the risk of failures of the local power plants.

irkutsk is the region with the lowest electricity prices for households in Russia-1.23 rubles (less than $ 0.02) per kilowatt hour (kWh) in cities and 0.86 rubles (just more than $ 0.01) in rural areas. The governor announced that the electricity consumption is expected to increase by almost 160 % compared to the previous year's value this year.

During the total current consumption in IrkutSk, an average of 5.9 billion kWh in the past four years was, he reached 4.7 billion kWh in the first half of 2021. In a social media contribution, Kobzev announced his proposal to recognize the mining of digital currencies as an entrepreneurial activity and to introduce special tariffs for electricity consumers who are involved.

In the neighboring Belarus, with which Russia maintains strong political and economic connections, the Ministry of Energy has already classified cryptocurrency miners in its own tariff category. The decision is part of a common Deket with the Ministry of Anti -Monopoly Regulation published at the end of September and Trade.

According to the Cited Document of Forklog, companies that are dealt with with data processing, information services and the associated activities, including the operators of mining systems and data centers, fall into this category if their annual electricity consumption is at least 25 million kWh. Depending on the consumption class, the tariff category includes four subgroups, with the top companies comprising the companies with a power consumption of more than 500 million kWh. Other groups can be added by the government of President Alexander Lukashenko. The current document does not call the exact price rates for every group.

Belarus legalized mining and other crypto-related activities with a presidential decree that came into force in March 2018. At the beginning of this year, the Belarusian head of state called for the clarification of certain regulatory provisions and the introduction of stricter control over the crypto room. Lukaschko has a positive attitude to the crypto mining, pressing Belarus in August to shape digital coins instead of picking strawberries on foreign farms. In 2019 he with excess electrical energy from the new nuclear power plant from the country to supply.

In the high-energy allied Belarus, the Russian Federation, the idea of ​​recognizing the cryptocurrency mining as a kind of entrepreneurial activity is supported by government officials. In September, the chairman of the Financial Market Committee of the State Duma Anatoly Aksakov expressed his position that the mining of digital currencies should be registered as such and taxed accordingly.

Do you believe that Russia and Belarus will significantly increase electricity prices for cryptocurrency miners? Share your expectations in the comment area below.

Bedy verification : Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons