Kazakhstan wants status reports, full disclosures from block reward miners

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The government of Kazakhstan has released new regulations targeted at digital currency block reward miners. The country’s Minister of Digital Development has directed that both new and existing block reward miners provide additional information on their operations. 

According to a recently published ministerial order, all miners will have to submit their business registration data, along with information about all their employees who must be legal residents of Kazakhstan. 

They are also required to provide the ministry with details of how much electricity they consume or plan to consume, the type, number, source, and evidence of legal ownership of their mining equipment, as well as the IP address and physical address of their mining operation. 

New miners are required to provide the information 30 days before they start operating in the country while existing miners are to furnish the ministry with quarterly status updates. Additionally, miners that plan to shut down must also inform the ministry. 

New miners will have to report 30 days before starting operations, and existing miners are to provide authorities with quarterly status updates. All block reward miners planning to shut down their operations will also need to report to authorities.

Block reward mining straining Kazakhstan’s power grid

The order, which is an update to similar rules made in 2020, is coming at a time when the Central Asian country is cracking down hard on illegal block reward miners. 

The crackdowns began in 2021 after a period where the industry expanded rapidly following China’s ban on block reward mining. Kazakhstan saw a lot of new block reward miners flock to its shores, pushing the country to become the second-largest contributor to the hash rate of the Bitcoin network. 

This influx had the effect of exerting a lot of pressure on the country’s power grid. Kazakhstan has had to shut off the electricity supply to block reward miners several times since last year. 

In recent months, the government has been successfully raiding illegal digital currency mines and confiscating their equipment. One such raid in March saw the shutdown of over 100 illegal block reward mining operations. 

The government has also recently proposed to hike taxes for block regard miners. At the moment, indications are that even among legal block reward miners, there are plans to leave the country. 

According to a Reuters report, several big block reward miners have stated plans to exit the country. The consideration was exacerbated by political tensions back in January that led to a countrywide internet shut down following protests ignited by an energy crisis. 

Watch: CoinGeek New York panel, Bitcoin and Blockchain Energy Consumption with MNP