The government of Abkhazia, a partially recognized republic in the South Caucasus, recently held talks with Russia for energy supply in its crypto mining venture.
Abkhazia is considering the legalization of crypto mining and is seeking help from its energy-rich neighbor to provide a consistent supply of energy.
Abkhazia implemented a mining ban in 2018 because of the energy crisis at that time and the restrictions will remain until March 2022.
The republic tightened its policies and introduced rules that would penalize miners who were caught stealing electricity. On top of that, a lot of crypto mining operations were also shut down.
Loosening its crypto rules
Abkhazia’s Ministry of Economy and Deputy Prime Minister Christiana Ozgan said that the government is now ready to ease up its tight crypto rules to tap the growing opportunities in crypto mining.
Ozgan also said Abkhazia is also planning to establish an electricity facility in Russia to help crypto miners set up equipment and have a ready supply of consistent energy.
The Russian government became open with Abkhazia’s request and sent representatives to discuss the technical aspects of the deal and submitted a draft agreement.
Abkhazia ready for crypto mining
Chernomorenergo, a local power distributor company, said that the total capacity of mining equipment operating in Abkhazia was at least 40 to 45 megawatts in 2020. It also said that when all these hardware operates at full capacity, they can consume 400 million kilowatts of electricity every year.
Ozgan said that before Abkhazia banned crypto operations in the country, 66,000 mining equipment were already shipped in the country. And now that Abkhazia will resume crypto operations, the government will implement a new electricity tariff to better regulate its cryptocurrency mining industry.
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