The head of the region Igor Kobzev complained about a significant increase in energy consumption due to underground enterprises for the extraction of cryptocurrencies and proposed to introduce special tariffs for electricity for miners
The Governor of the Irkutsk Region Igor Kobzev on Instagram suggested recognizing cryptocurrency mining as a type of entrepreneurship. The head of the region published on the social network his appeal to the deputy chairman of the Russian government, Alexander Novak, in which he complained about a significant increase in energy consumption due to underground miners. Kobzev believes that it is necessary to introduce increased electricity tariffs for miners.
“Miners have to pay for electricity at different rates. It should be solely on their shoulders to pay for the cost overruns that occurs due to their "farms". This is how we can protect all other residents of the region, ”Kobzev noted.
According to the head of the Irkutsk region, there have already been precedents in the region due to the gigantic load on the electrical networks. In the Markovskoye municipality, dacha villages were left without power supply for several hours, Kobzev explained. He also added that such accidents in the winter could lead to an emergency.
In September, Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, came up with a similar initiative. He proposed equating mining to a type of entrepreneurial activity, as well as introducing appropriate taxation.
On October 13, it became known that Russia took the third place in the world in bitcoin mining, the country's share in the total computing power of miners reached 11% in August compared to 6.8% in April.