Kazakhstan gov’t will not restrict power to legal miners

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Kazakhstan will not restrict power to legal miners operating in the country, the energy minister has stated. Following a meeting with stakeholders in the block reward mining industry, the minister pledged to cooperate with the legal operators and crack down on the grey miners.

Power supply and consumption by block reward miners have become a major topic of debate in Kazakhstan. The country has seen an explosion in mining activities, which has come at a cost for the national power grid. Following power shortages and outages, the government has blamed the miners and pledged to limit their power consumption.

However, the industry stakeholders have worked out a deal with the Energy Ministry to prevent this rationing. In a government press release, Minister Magzum Mirzagaliyev has dismissed this pledge and promised the industry that its power supply will remain uninterrupted. Magzum believes that the miners have the same rights as any other business in the country and should not be discriminated.

He further called for cooperation between the industry and the government to ensure that the households and other industries don’t suffer from power shortages.

“Given the high potential of the blockchain industry, it is important to join efforts for the industry’s development. I support dialogue, therefore, I urge ‘white’ miners to jointly search for solutions to ensure the reliability of the unified electric power system.”

White miners are the legal entities that have been licensed to operate and which source their power legally from the national grid operator. Grey miners are the illicit operators who are unlicensed and, in most cases, sap energy at lower or zero rates.

In the meeting, which brought together leaders from major block reward miners and blockchain unions, the minister pledged to work on regulations for the block reward mining industry. This would make it easier for the government to crack down on the grey miners, he said.

The Association of the Blockchain and the Data Center and Technology Industry, and the Kazakhstan Association of Blockchain Technologies were represented in the meeting, as was the Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company.

The miners pledged to import electricity from neighboring countries such as Russia if the need arises and raise their investments in the renewable energy sector.

Watch: CoinGeek New York panel, How to Achieve Green Bitcoin: Energy Consumption & Environmental Sustainability