Cryptocurrency Mining Banned in Venezuela, Thousands of Machines Seized

The crypto mining industry often comes under scrutiny because it uses a lot of energy and releases greenhouse gases into the environment. In a recent development, the South American nation of Venezuela announced the ban cryptocurrency mining. The huge load of electricity used for mining different cryptocurrencies has left the Venezuelan government concerned, which eventually resorted to restricting all such cryptocurrency mining operations. AlbertoNews, a Venezuelan publication, was the first to do so relationship about 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 an energy supply control plan to dismantle cryptocurrency mining clusters.

The enforcement of the cryptocurrency mining ban came after authorities in the South American nation confiscated 2,000 cryptocurrency mining companies in Maracay, Aragua state, last week. The Ministry of Electricity posted a video of these seized machines on Instagram, informing its 26,500 followers of the ban on cryptocurrency mining due to the enormous size of its energy needs.

The mining process cryptocurrencies requires complex advanced mathematical equations to be solved on high energy consumption computers that must always remain connected to electricity. As per a recent one blog published By Just Energy, the energy consumption of all crypto assets combined is between 120 and 240 billion kilowatt hours per year, which is more than the combined electricity consumption of all the world’s data centers.

As for Venezuela, it had already been witnessing a power crisis for years, causing inconvenience to its population reportedly approximately 29.12 million.

Some parts of the country have suffered massive blackouts since 2009 and the situation worsened in 2019, AlbertoNews said. The report also notes that the cause of these blackouts is the lack of maintenance and modernization of the electricity system in Venezuela. The situation is far from resolved in the South American nation which has already seen 219 protests against frequent power outages between January and March this year.

Reacting to the development, Rafael Lacava, governor of the Venezuelan state of Carabobo, issued a public appeal asking people to report cryptocurrency mining activities in their locations.

“If you, a neighbor, see a house you know, tell him to turn off the farm, or report him, because when they turn off the light, because you have to give the light to a man so that he can earn something Reales (money), you are left without electricity”, he Lacava told AkbertoNews.

In the past, Iran, KosovoAND China along with multiple nations have imposed bans on cryptocurrency mining.

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