Officials warn that a concerning household practice must cease due to imminent widespread power outages: 'For the well-being of the rest of the population'

Residents in mountainous areas of the small European nation of Georgia have been warned against a specific activity in order to reduce the risk of local power outages.

What's happening?

According to IntelliNews, the district administration in Georgia's northern region of Svaneti has requested that residents cease cryptocurrency mining activity because of the strain it's putting on the local energy supply.

The country's highland support program has given people in Svaneti access to free or subsidized electricity, but this has resulted in people taking advantage of this benefit to mine for cryptocurrency.

With this increased energy demand, the grid is struggling to keep up, and outages have been the consequence. In cold winter months, this is particularly problematic, while local businesses have also suffered, putting the tourism industry at risk.

The mayor of Mestia, the capital of Svaneti, has said that "for the well-being of the rest of the population — your neighbors, your relatives, your friends," mining activity needs to cease.

Why is cryptocurrency mining concerning?

According to the London School of Economics, a single bitcoin transaction can generate as much carbon dioxide pollution as driving a gas-guzzling car between 1,000 and 1,600 miles unless powered by dedicated renewable energy.

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It's estimated that proof-of-work bitcoin mining, using high-performance computers, will soon need around 63 terawatt-hours of power annually.

Despite the rise of renewable energy — such as wind, geothermal, and solar power — the wider electricity grid is still heavily reliant on dirty fuels to create power. This produces a lot of planet-warming pollution, which traps heat in the atmosphere and leads to rising global temperatures.

Aside from its strain on the electricity system, the American Geophysical Union also noted that cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of water and accounts for plenty of land use. In 2020 and 2021, global bitcoin mining needed around 1.65 cubic kilometers of water, and the activity required land equivalent to the size of Los Angeles.

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What can be done about cryptocurrency energy use?

New technologies require adaptation, and one council area in Switzerland is hoping to access the benefits of cryptocurrency without its negative environmental impact.

The canton of Bern has proposed using excess energy that would otherwise be wasted to power crypto mining activities, reducing strain on the grid and not encouraging the production of further energy-related pollution to meet demand.

Meanwhile, a partnership between Gigatons and Alephium is backing a solar-powered bitcoin mining system while also encouraging investments in projects that reduce carbon pollution.