The government of Kosovo has halted crypto mining in the country due to power constraints during the winter season.
Kosovar Minister of Economy Artane Rizvanolli has decided to stop mining cryptocurrencies following a recommendation from the technical committee on “Emergency measures for energy supply”, according to a local media report Gazeta Express.
The report notes that the government made the decision after Kosovo’s power supply fell below the stipulated level, and began to impose power cuts during peak periods.
According to Rizvanolli, the government has decided to create a technical committee to assess emergency energy supply strategies in response to the situation. Based on the committee’s recommendations last week, the government decided to take emergency measures, including stopping cryptocurrency mining across Kosovo’s borders.
The report notes that law enforcement agencies are set to step in to halt cryptocurrency production and are working to identify the locations where such operations take place. The minister said:
“These actions aim to address the potential unexpected or long-term lack of power generation capacity, power transmission or distribution capacity in order to overcome the energy crisis without further burdening the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo.
Due to low domestic production and exorbitant energy import charges, Kosovo’s power distribution company KEDS announced that blackouts would be implemented across the country on December 22. Bitcoin mining is known to consume a lot of energy, with a recent report claiming that Bitcoin uses eight times as much energy as Google and Facebook combined.
In recent months, several countries have expressed concern over mining-related power outages, including Iran and Kazakhstan.
Related: Iran suspends electricity exports due to crypto mining and hot summer
Meanwhile, following the surrender of Chinese miners triggered by the country’s crypto ban announced in September, retail cryptocurrency mining in Thailand appears to be flourishing. As TBEN reported, Thai entrepreneurs and cryptocurrency firms took advantage of Chinese miners getting rid of their mining equipment.
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here