Kazakhstan’s Power Grid Is Strained Due To BTC Mining, Here’s Why

Kazakhstan’s power grid is heavily strained because of the Bitcoin mining activities in the country that are only growing because of China’s ban that led to companies moving to Kazakhstan so let’s read more about it in today’s Bitcoin news.

Even if Kazakhstan’s share of the BTC network remained at 18% since August, the network hash rate saw a surge of 43% and the price gains brought even more pressure. When China banned BTC mining back in May, a lot of crypto natives moved out and came to Kazakhstan. The mining rigs will be loaded up and moved somewhere else because the great thing about decentralized networks is that they are beyond borders so crypto always finds a way.

But the miners that arrived in Kazakhstan overtaxed the country’s power grid a lot and so much that the government went from welcoming them to capping the consumption and sourcing auxiliary power from Russia as per the reports from Financial Times. From the start of the year to the end of the summer, Kazakhstan went from accounting for 6% of the hash rate on the BTC network to 18% as per the Cambridge bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index which makes it that the country that has the second biggest presence on the network behind the US at 35% leaving a huge margin between it and Russia of about 11%.

Even that figure is not really clear in capturing the magnitude of how much crypto mining picked up in the country. Since the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption last released hash rate estimates per country during the Summer, the total network hash rate increased by 43%. it dropped a little as mining rigs went offline after China’s ban and has steadily increased to where it was back in April.

As recently reported, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proposed a new building for a nuclear power plant to sustain the country’s mining growth and the suggestion was made during a meeting with the bankers following various proposals that aim to increase the contribution of the domestic financial system for economic development and the well being of the citizens. After China’s crackdown on crypto mining, Kazakhstan became the perfect spot for Chinese miners to migrate and the lack of government intervention, as well as low energy costs, turned the country into a promising destination.