Cryptocurrency Mining Banned in Venezuela, Thousands of Machines Seized

The crypto mining industry often finds itself under scrutiny for being energy-intensive and releasing greenhouse gases into the environment. In a recent development, the South American nation of Venezuela announced a ban on cryptocurrency mining. The huge electricity load used for mining different cryptocurrencies has left the Venezuelan government concerned, which eventually resorted to a total restriction of these cryptocurrency mining operations. AlbertoNews, a Venezuelan publication, was the first to relationship on this development over the weekend.

The Venezuelan government has reportedly joined forces with the national electricity system to identify and disconnect cryptocurrency mining farms from the power grid over the next few days. The Venezuelan Ministry of Electricity (MPPPE) has already initiated a power control plan to dismantle cryptocurrency mining clusters.

The crypto mining ban came after authorities in the South American nation seized 2,000 crypto mining companies in Maracay, Aragua state last week. The local electricity ministry posted a video of the seized machines on Instagram, informing its 26,500 followers of the crypto mining ban due to the sheer size of its energy requirements.

The mining process cryptocurrencies requires complex and advanced mathematical equations to be solved on energy-intensive computers that must remain permanently connected to electricity. As per a recent blog published According to Just Energy, the energy consumption of all cryptocurrencies combined is between 120 and 240 billion kilowatt hours per year, which is more than the combined electricity usage of all the data centers in the world.

As for Venezuela, the country had already been experiencing a power crisis for years, causing hardship to its population. as they say approximately 29.12 million.

Some parts of the country have seen massive blackouts since 2009 and the situation has taken a turn for the worse in 2019, AlbertoNews said. The report also noted that the lack of maintenance and upgrades to the power system in Venezuela is the reason behind these blackouts. The situation is far from being resolved in the South American nation which has already seen 219 protests against frequent power cuts between January and March this year.

In response to the incident, Rafael Lacava, governor of the Venezuelan state of Carabobo, launched a public appeal asking the population to report cryptocurrency mining activities near their area.

“If you, neighbor, see a house that you know, tell that person to turn off the farm, or report it, because when they turn off the light, because you have to give light to a man so that he can earn some reales (money), you are left without electricity service,” Lacava said, quoted by AkbertoNews.

In the past, Iran, KosovoAND China At the same time, more and more countries have imposed bans on cryptocurrency mining.

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