The realm of cryptocurrency has always been an intriguing sphere teetering between innovative financial freedom and environmental concerns. Of late, the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan has found itself in the limelight for its plans regarding cryptocurrency mining.
According to a report from Kyrgyzstan’s national news agency Kabar, the Kyrgyz President, Sadyr Japarov, has given a green light to construct a cryptocurrency mining farm at a hydroelectric power plant. This hydropowered crypto mining project is expected to cost the government up to $20 million.
The move comes as an initiative to mitigate energy losses from non-utilised power, the report indicated. Since the inception of Kambar-Ata-2, a hydroelectric power plant in 2010, the Kyrgyzstan government has reportedly lost 6.8 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy. The launch of the mining farm will entail deploying the otherwise wasted energy and will bring economic advantages to the country’s budget, Japarov noted.
However, this announcement somewhat contradicts recent news buzzing around the Kyrgyzstan energy scene. On July 24, Japarov declared a state of emergency in the country’s energy sector. The emergency was warranted by climatic challenges, insufficient inflow of water into the Naryn River basin, and a deficiency of generating capacity due to excessive growth of energy consumption.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyz lawmaker Karim Khanjeza called on authorities to legalise the cryptocurrency industry during a parliamentary committee meeting in March 2022. Despite this, and some regulations introduced for crypto exchanges in 2021, Kyrgyzstan is yet to pass any crypto-related regulations so far. Furthermore, a former government official contested that cryptocurrency mining was a significant driving force behind the energy crisis in the country.
This, therefore, places a layer of complexity in realising the vision of a hydropowered cryptocurrency farm. The future will dictate whether this will be a progressive step towards efficient use of energy resources and economic growth or a step too far in consuming much-needed power in a climate-stricken region. Ultimately, it is this delicate dance between innovation and sustainability that will define the future of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies in Kyrgyzstan and the world beyond.
Source: Cointelegraph
