Miners’ share of Russia’s energy consumption tops 2%

Mining accounts for more than 2% of Russia’s total electricity consumption, underscoring the need to regulate this market. The statement was made by Vasily Shpak, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, пишет «Interfax».

According to him, cryptocurrency mining consumes more energy than agriculture.

“In this sense, we cannot fail to recognise mining as an industrial activity or sector,” the official said.

Shpak proposed regulating this sector to make it transparent to the state and shield miners from potential risks.

“Our position is absolutely unequivocal: mining must be recognised, regulated and integrated into industrial activity,” added the deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Earlier this week, the State Duma registered the updated draft law обновленный проект закона «О майнинге в РФ». The previous document was withdrawn.

The new draft law excludes provisions relating to the registry of mining participants and «амнистии» для последних.

По данным Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance data, in mid-May Russia moved to fifth place in the share of Bitcoin’s hash rate, at 4.7%. It was surpassed by the United States (37.8%), China (21.1%), Kazakhstan (13.2%) and Canada (6.5%).

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