Kosovo’s government banned cryptocurrency mining to curb energy consumption as the country is experiencing an energy crisis due to rising global prices.
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The government said all law enforcement agencies will stop cryptocurrency production with the cooperation of other relevant institutions.
Cryptocurrency mining is an energy-intensive activity involving hundreds of computers to verify digital transactions in order to earn cryptocurrency. Kosovo’s cheap power prices prompted people to take up crypto mining in the last few years.
However, the nation had to introduce power cuts last month after coal-fired plant outages and high import prices.
Kosovo announced a 60-day emergency to allow the government to allocate more money for energy imports and stricter measures for energy consumption. The county imports more than 40% of its energy and demand rises in winters as people use electricity for heating.
Amid the skyrocketing prices in Europe, Kosovo is enforcing blackouts due to electricity shortage. The blackouts have sparked protests and called for the resignation of Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli.
Hence, the government of Kosovo decided to ban crypto mining to address energy production capacity in order to overcome the energy crisis without further aggravating the issue.
Published - January 06, 2022 02:59 pm IST
