Innovative Russian cryptocurrency miners seem poised to tap renewable energy sources, most likely as a means of self-preservation, judging by online reports.
At issue is a government crackdown on mining resulting from strains on the country's power grid. Bloomberg reported that the rules apply to numerous regions through 2031. The ban, which started Jan. 1, is seasonal in some areas.
Now, miners in the country may be skirting the rules by using renewables for the power-hungry operations, according to Dimsum Daily and Bitcoin.com News. It's a scenario that could lead to faster adoption of cleaner energy sources in the country.
"As more industrial companies adopt sustainable development strategies and aim for decarbonization, energy-intensive mining operations will inevitably follow suit," Russian Renewable Energy Development Association Director Alexey Zhikharev said, per Dimsum Daily.
The miners referenced aren't of the pick-and-shovel variety. Bitcoin is the puzzling alternative currency launched in 2009 that uses loads of computer power to "mine" digital coins, or tokens. The computers solve complicated puzzles to unlock blocks, forming blockchains and earning coins. More computers can solve more puzzles and bank more tokens, as described by Fidelity. There are now thousands of cryptocurrencies, according to data collector Statista.
The problem is the massive amounts of power needed to create the digital currency. The United Nations noted that worldwide mining uses as much power as some countries, equal to burning 84 billion pounds of coal and producing heat-trapping air pollution linked by NASA to greater extreme weather risks.
In Russia, the miners suck up about 1.5% of the country's electricity, according to Reuters. By comparison, it's 0.6-2.3% of total electricity consumption in the United States, per government data. Meta and other companies have started investing in renewable energy projects stateside to offset demand from their energy-needy data centers, in part to relieve grid strain.
The Russian rules include some areas it considers annexed from Ukraine, locations where power infrastructure has been damaged by war. Some lucrative cryptocurrency sites used hydropower, but the energy demand was too great. Russian officials planned to collect $2 billion annually in taxes from the miners, all per Reuters.
Elsewhere in the industry, cryptomining companies are at work to clean up the sector with verification processes that use less electricity.
Anyone can help by supporting businesses that work with the planet's best interests in mind. Staying educated about cryptocurrency mining can help you make a clean decision if you enter the market.
For their part, Russian cryptominers are seemingly compelled to reduce their air pollution output with renewable energy use as a matter of national energy security.
"Failing to do so would result in higher emissions for every new token mined, adversely affecting the climate," Zhikharev said.
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