Abkhaz authorities acknowledge failure to establish a systematic approach to counter illegal mining

The president of Abkhazia, Aslan Bzhaniya, voiced his dissatisfaction with the measures taken by authorities to combat illegal connections to power grids for cryptocurrency mining. The report comes from Апсныпресс.

“There is no systematic approach to counter illegal connections to power grids and cryptocurrency mining; it does not exist. The work is sporadic,” said Aslan Bzhaniya.

The Interior Ministry received lists of locations of mining farms in several cities in Abkhazia, said the head of the ministry, Dmitry Dbar. He spoke of the need for a joint response to the information with groups from Gosstandart and “Chernomorenergo”.

Bzhaniya tasked the Minister of Economy Kristine Ozgan with establishing a systematic approach to counter illegal connections to power networks.

Ozgan noted that thanks to summer joint actions by the authorities in this direction, average daily electricity consumption declined. However, in October the situation deteriorated — daily overage stood at 1.7 million kWh in nearly all districts.

There is a ban on mining and the import of equipment for cryptocurrency mining until 31 March 2022.

Authorities regularly carry out raids to confiscate equipment for mining. In September, the head of the Gudauta branch of “Chernomorenergo,” Akhra Gagulia stated that this does not solve the problem, and proposed seizing illegally installed transformers.

Read ForkLog Bitcoin news on our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, rates and analytics.