Abkhazia’s president Aslan Bzhaniya has sent to parliament a package of bills tightening penalties for illegal connection of mining farms. сообщает пресс-служба главы республики.
“These will be unprecedented in scale fines, the possibility of confiscation of equipment, and criminal liability,” Bzhaniya said.
The proposed measures are designed to prevent miners from reconnecting to the grid.
Raids to reduce daily electricity consumption are ongoing in the republic. According to Mikhail Logua, the general director of «Черноморэнерго», over two days police officers disconnected equipment with a capacity of more than 50 MW.
“Last week, energy consumption reached a record 11.8 million kWh. It is now falling daily, and on Monday, January 25, it stood at 9.8 million kWh,” he added.
Due to energy-intensive mining of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Abkhazia has found itself on the brink of a crisis — the republic lacks electricity to meet the growing needs of its population and the economy.
In late 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers of Abkhazia banned cryptocurrency mining and restricted the import of equipment for its implementation until June 1, 2021. Under the temporary blockade were mining-pool sites.
Later, the police reported the shutdown of 6,981 ASIC miners. However, some miners have managed to arrange privately with the government to import equipment into the republic.
ForkLog previously reported on the Abkhaz parliament’s plans to confiscate mining equipment and to impose fines of around 1.5 million rubles per MW. However, authorities stated for the first time that criminal liability would be introduced.
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