Russia's Vasily Shpak suggests that mining must be regulated and "whitewashed."
As per a recent estimate issued by the Russian government, crypto miners continue to consume around 2% of Russia’s total electricity. Because of such assertions, the industry minister highlighted that particular regulation must be imposed on these kinds of operations in order to avoid similar incidents from occurring in the future.
Following the latest mining estimate, the deputy head of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade Vasily Shpak has advocated for putting the mining industry under the jurisdiction of the law by stating:
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"Do you know how much mining accounts for in the overall map of electricity generation in our country? And I'll tell you: more than 2%. This is more than the cost of electricity for agriculture. We cannot but recognize mining in this sense as an industrial activity or industry."
Crypto mining is a process of verifying transactions and adding blocks to a blockchain that requires energy-intensive resources.
Moreover, crypto mining now falls in the “gray zone”, meaning that it is not taxed or regulated in any way, which might lead to particular dangers for individuals that are involved in the business.
Shpak also hopes that the country will be able to reduce a significant amount of electricity used for mining in the near future as the industry is slowly shifting to less energy-exhausting mining protocols. Even so, mining operations would still continue to use a particular portion of power. The Deputy Minister added:
“Our position is completely unambiguous — mining must be recognized, regulated and established as an industrial activity.”
On top of that, Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin also provided his view on the cryptocurrency mining business and suggested that the government also believes that mining issues should be prioritized. Mishustin explained:
"We also think that in order to stimulate investment, primarily in fixed capital, we can discuss mining issues, this is the creation of data centers and related infrastructure."
Earlier this month, Denis Manturov, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, stated that Russia is planning to legalize payments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC). However, the exact date when this would see the light of day is not yet known.
