Opinion: Mining to become Russia’s export earnings source

Russia has a competitive edge in the mining market and can use it as a source of export earnings. This was заявил the EMCD pool’s chief financial officer, Stanislav Akulinkin, during a round table at the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation.

According to him, the legalization of cryptocurrency mining will positively affect the development of the Russian economy.

«Mining is a clear source of export revenue for Russia. It is conducted on the country’s territory, involves energy resources, and security. This is a real business in which Russia has competitive advantages, since the electricity surplus in the country is about 24 billion kWh per year. Currently, Russian miners are mining about $4 billion», — emphasized Akulinkin.

Unregulated cryptocurrency mining risks power supply disruptions, increased cross-subsidization, and outages on power grids, said Igor Runets, CEO of BitRiver.

«Regulation will allow direct use of the country’s energy resources, since mining, in essence, is the export of electricity without wires. In the long run, this will enable higher energy consumption in Russia and lower electricity tariffs», — he added.

Igor Runets also did not exclude that for Russia cryptocurrencies could become “part of the country’s sovereignty in the context of a new economy”.

As noted, the definition of mining and the basic mechanisms of its regulation are laid out in the Ministry of Finance’s «On Digital Currency» bill.

Earlier, a representative of the Ministry of Finance, Alexey Yakovlev, stated the futility of the ban on cryptocurrency mining at home.

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