Kosovo’s largest coal-fired power plant shut down last month due to a technical problem, resulting in the government having to buy electricity from outside at a very high price. Following this event, the government declared a 60-day state of emergency in December and decided to take energy-restrictive measures to allocate a larger budget to energy imports; had begun to implement alternate cuts across the country. While the power cuts caused mass demonstrations, the people of Kosovo called on the country’s Minister of Economy, Artane Rizvanolli, to resign.
Thereupon, Rizvanolli, the government; announced that it has banned cryptocurrency mining in the country as a precaution to reduce these negative effects caused by the global energy crisis. Within the framework of this decision, authorized security forces will detect crypto money mining resources and stop these activities.
Last month, Kosovo bought 40 percent of its electricity from abroad.
Until very recently, Kosovo was proud to be the country with the cheapest electricity in Europe. Due to the cheapness of electricity, many young people from Kosovo started mining cryptocurrencies. However, as many of you will know, very powerful computer networks specially tuned to mine cryptocurrencies, and serious amounts of electricity are needed to run these networks.
This means that mining cryptocurrencies will cause more damage to the country, especially at a time when there is a shortage of energy and the country has to supply electricity from outside. Last month, authorities announced that 40 percent of the energy consumed in Kosovo is purchased from abroad. In addition, the deepening of the energy crisis in Europe as a result of the increase in energy prices, the decrease in Russia’s supply and the need for natural gas in economies trying to recover after the COVID-19 epidemic affected Kosovo more than many other countries.
Kosovo is not the only country taking action against cryptocurrency mining
On the other hand, Kosovo is not the only country to ban cryptocurrency mining. Due to the negative impact of the crypto money extraction process on the environment, some countries, including China and Iran, have made regulations restricting this process; Many countries have also called for regulations to be made. Iran, which banned cryptocurrency mining for 4 months last year; He noted that this process consumes more than 2 gigawatts of electricity daily from the national electricity grid.
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