Russian miners are calling for the cryptocurrency mining industry to be legalized

Russian miners told the country’s lawmakers, “Hurry up and legalize our industry.”

The difficulty of Russian miners when there is no law to mine cryptocurrencies

Russian crypto miners want their industry to be legalized – and hope that official status can help them avoid conflicts with electricity suppliers.

Lenta reports that the situation of miners in the Siberian Irkutsk Oblast deteriorated towards the end of the year.

As previously reported, Igor Kobzev, Governor of Irkutsk Oblast in southeast Siberia, complained to Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister Alexander Novak about money graves in October. Illegal electronics have increased electricity consumption.

Currently, many people in the region – and elsewhere in Russia – pay low and high subsidized electricity prices for private and non-industrial or non-commercial use.

However, with mining lacks legal status in Russia, it is difficult for energy companies to force miners to pay higher taxes, while policymakers continue to make little progress in their legislative efforts.

But the oblast’s energy supplier, Irkutskenergosbyt, seems to have had enough – and is now working on its own. Lenta noted that the company has already looked into legal action against 85 miners in the area – most of whom are individuals mining at home. The company has won nine of these cases to date, with several others still active.

Some miners have voiced their outrage over the move, but others say the electricity company is right – and only the government has the right to look into the problem.

Russian miners are calling for the cryptocurrency mining industry to be legalized

The media company quoted Vitaly Borshchenko, co-founder of crypto-mining equipment specialist BitCluster, who complained that due to the lack of a clear definition in current legislation, it was unclear on what basis the equipment would be recognized as a commercial activity.

Murad Yaliev from Irkutsk-based crypto “mining hotel” MinerWorld was also quoted as saying there was “no legal basis” for the move.

But in a separate article from the same media, others disagree. The sales director of the crypto mining company EMCD, Dmitry Kudinov, was quoted as saying:

“You can see where Irkutskenergosbyt comes from.”

In some cases the miners were not prepared for their operations and the “large electricity consumption” had increased the “corporate debt” – the debt “steadily increased” with the influx of new miners into the area. Ultimately, he noted, the bill would be taken up by “ordinary citizens” in the region.

Kudinov argues that the whole problem could have been avoided if a legal framework had been put in place in Russia from the start.

A blockchain expert from the same company, Denis Smirnov, was further quoted:

“Since mining cryptocurrencies is an extremely energy-intensive activity, it should be classified as a commercial activity. I do not believe that Russia will lose its status as an attractive region for miners if mining is recognized as a full-fledged industrial sector. On the contrary, it will increase Russia’s attractiveness as a mining destination. ”

Smirnov said the legislation would make the “rules of the game” very “clear” for miners and remove elements of uncertainty from miners’ business plans.

He concluded:

“Legal and regulatory initiatives will attract a large number of market participants [Nga] and this move will enable Russia to become the locomotive of the global mining industry. “

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