BTC Mining In Russia Remains Unaffected Amid Ukraine War

The BTC mining in Russia remains unaffected despite the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia providing an estimated 11% of the blockchain network hash power so let’s read furhter in today’s latest Bitcoin news.

Russia ranks third among the countries in BTC mining as measured by the hash rate and its share remained steady after the invasion of Ukraine. If Russian miners were to go offline now, the BTC network could become less secure for a while. Over half of the BTC network’s computing power comes from three countries, the USA, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and now the latter is in a state of war with Ukraine which left the crypto industry watches checking for disruptions on the network.

I want to reassure our customers hosting in Russia that we are in constant communication with the facilities, which are in Siberia and well isolated from any geopolitical unrest. Compass has confirmed with our partners that all miners are safe and will continue running as normal.

— Whit Gibbs 🧭 (@BitcoinBroski) February 24, 2022

For the moment, BTC mining in Russia remains steady but sanctions could change everything for miners who came into daily contact with exchanges and other entities that are connected to the financial system as they exchange BTC for cash. According to Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Russia was responsible for 11% of the global BTC hash rate as of July 2021 and the hash rate is actually the measure of the computing power dedicated to the network as the miners run software on specialized hardware in an attempt to win the newly minted coins and they secure the network from attacks. Will Foxley from Compass Mining said:

“Much of Russian bitcoin mining is powered by domestic natural gas or [hydroelectric power] in Siberia. It’s unlikely that hashpower goes offline unless sanctions influence pool providers.”

Compass Mining CEO added that the company’s own facilities in Russia are isolated from any geopolitical unrest. If a larger share of BTC miners goes offline as was the case with China last year, the network could become less decentralized and less secure. While mining began as a solo hobby, it grew to a multi-billionaire industry that was dominated by pools so this now extends to not just BTC but to other blockchains as well.

One of those pool teams, Flexpool, said that it will block people with Russian IP addresses from taking part in ETH mining and it provides 5% of the hash power to the Ethereum network and ranks fourth among other pools:

 “We apologize to our Russian miners; many of you do not support the war. However, it is you who are supporting your nation. Without the people, Russia cannot operate.”

There’s an example of one group of miners that are taking a political stand however pools chose to two the governments’ lines in the past. Antpool for example as the biggest BTC mining pool with 17% of the hashrate, cut off users in china to comply with the Chinese ban. Russia won’t likely ban BTC as It focuses on winning the war with Ukraine and avoiding the West applied sanctions. The Russian central bank even called for BTC mining and crypto transactions which exist in a legal gray area. According to Putin, Russia has certain competitive advantages because of the surplus of electricity.