The Kazakhstan government has banned cryptocurrency mining until February.

Kazakhstan‘s government has banned bitcoin mining from January 24 to February 1. Kegoc, the state-owned power grid operator, will not deliver electricity to miners until next month. For months, Kazakhstan has been plagued by power shortages, which have exacerbated civic unrest.

Kazakhstan, which last year welcomed the migration of cryptocurrency miners within its borders in response to China’s mining crackdown, has now switched to blocking off cryptocurrency miners from its energy system for the time being.

The government of Kazakhstan has prohibited bitcoin miners from utilizing the country’s electricity from January 24 to January 31. A representative for Kegoc, the state-owned electricity grid operator, said that firms mining cryptocurrency will be barred from doing so until February 1.

The move was followed by blackouts in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan today, which were triggered by the failure of one of Kazakhstan’s major power lines. The electrical infrastructure in the Central Asian area is linked, and millions have lost power or water.

Kazakhstan’s electricity system has been stretched for months, with rolling blackouts this winter—a issue exacerbated by Bitcoin mining’s high energy demand. Kegoc has limited the quantity of power it distributes to mining sites due to the country’s challenges.

Following China’s mining restriction last summer, Kazakhstan had a tremendous spike in mining, propelling the country to the number two rank in the world for Bitcoin mining. However, many Bitcoin miners remain unregistered with the Kazakh authorities.

The power disruptions have been severe enough to cause civic unrest, which has been forcefully suppressed. As part of its response to the civil upheaval, the government has enforced Internet outages, affecting Bitcoin miners as well as ordinary individuals.

Kazakhstan’s efforts to curtail the energy-intensive Proof-of-Work mining are being met with alarm from a number of other countries. A senior European Union authority urged for the outright suspension of Proof-of-Work mining last week. The Bank of Russia went even further the next day, suggesting a blanket ban on all cryptocurrency-related operations.

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