Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Power

Russia Bans Crypto Mining in Multiple Regions, Citing Energy Concerns (engadget.com) 87

The Russian government has banned crypto mining in ten regions for a period of six years, according to reporting by the state-owned news agency Tass. Engadget adds: Russia has cited the industry's high power consumption rates as the primary reason behind the ban. Crypto is particularly power-hungry, as mining operations already account for nearly 2.5 percent of US energy use.

This ban takes effect on January 1 and lasts until March 15, 2031. The country's Council of Ministers has also stated that additional bans may be required in other regions during periods of peak energy demand. It could also go the other way. The ban could be temporarily lifted or altered in certain regions if a government commission examines changes in energy demand and deems it necessary.

Russia Bans Crypto Mining in Multiple Regions, Citing Energy Concerns

Comments Filter:
  • by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @07:38PM (#65039299)
    Mr. Putin and Co can't afford their electric bill.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by quonset ( 4839537 )

      Spending untold amounts of money to repair destroyed oil refineries, ammunition dumps, replace sunk ships, tens of thousands of tanks, APCs, and other war materiel tends to do that.

      But in no way are sanctions having any effect.

      • Sanctions are a long term commitment. How does Russia look in 20 years shut out from the west compared to how they would have looked otherwise? That difference makes them useful, since it does not cost us much at all.
        • by znrt ( 2424692 )

          so it's 20 years now? that's a long way to push the delusion ahead ... methinks we'll see results much sooner, just watch out that it isn't the west shutting itself out from the rest of the world.

          • so it's 20 years now? that's a long way to push the delusion ahead ... methinks we'll see results much sooner

            Of course when Putin dies anything could happen, and I certainly hope that is much sooner, yes, but there is no rush. They can stay in place as long as necessary

        • Sanctions are a long term commitment. How does Russia look in 20 years shut out from the west compared to how they would have looked otherwise? That difference makes them useful, since it does not cost us much at all.

          If by "us" you mean the United States than you are probably right. It doesn't cost us much. But the question may be how does Europe look without Russia in 20 years compared to how they would have looked otherwise. Have you noticed Germany, by far Europe's largest economy, is now shrinking. And it is not just Germany that is struggling from being cut off from Russia. Witness the panic in some countries over natural gas supplies. That is the cost side.

        • by gtall ( 79522 )

          What do you mean, 20 years? After el Bunko becomes la presidenta again, he'll remove any sanctions and lean on Europe to remove theirs. Think of it as Putin's late Christmas present. Shortly thereafter, Putin will find a way to funnel money into el Bunko's "businesses". Remember, el Bunko never does anything unless he can profit from it. And he won't give a flying rat's ass if Russia kills every last Ukrainian, women and children first, he's that amoral.

      • by DrXym ( 126579 )

        I expect sanctions start to bite when bits start failing on all their plants, trains, planes, machinery and they realise they can't procure replacements. Then they start using knock off parts from China, cannibalizing their gear and generally watching their infrastructure degrade, fall apart and become decrepit.

    • Re:Sounds like (Score:5, Insightful)

      by buck-yar ( 164658 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @08:07PM (#65039361)
      Energy isn't unlimited, therefore it is a scarce resource. Whatever amount crypto consumes, is that much less for everyone else, driving up the price. For what end? All calculations except for the solution are wasted, and that's a lot of energy. People should look at photos of some of these bitcoin mines to get an idea of the wasted energy. All to perpetuate a ponzi/greater fool 'trade' that dangles get-rich-quick in front of people that have lost hope in getting rich through conventional means. "Its a payment system" nope. Nobody holding it wants to buy things with it, they want to unload it after it goes up. Transaction costs are too high, and its too slow to use it as it was intended. Whales own such a large portion they could wreck it overnight. Who is that Satoshi guy that created it? If you ask the avg bitcoiner what the nonce is, and you'll get a blank stare. Hardly anyone even knows how it works.
      • Russia has plenty of gas.

        The bottleneck is generating capacity.

        Ukrainian drones should target the generators.

      • by cusco ( 717999 )

        At Amazon we built a data center in western China, near the solar panel fields, with the assurance that it would be free from interference like the Beijing DC. When it was almost completed, servers being racked, etc., interference appeared and eventually we sold the facility without it ever going online. Three months later the whole 500,000 square feet was mining Bitcoin.

      • "Its a payment system" nope. Nobody holding it wants to buy things with it, they want to unload it after it goes up. Transaction costs are too high, and its too slow to use it as it was intended.

        That's what lightning network is used for [wikipedia.org].

      • Proof of Work is kind of wasteful, but it's not essential for running a blockchain. Proof of Stake was introduced by Peercoin in 2012, and of the bigger cryptocurrencies, Ethereum has made the switch from PoW to PoS.

        Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, so while there's been a lot of interesting development in the scene, Bitcoin retains a lot of flaws you could expect from the first iteration of an idea. If we can't just switch to a better blockchain, I'd gladly welcome changes such as PoS to Bitcoin, bu

  • Stealing it remains perfectly legal, and is very cost effective.
  • by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @08:31PM (#65039391)

    How are they going to know who is mining crypto? They can target the large centralized operations, but anything else could be a gamer rig or similar.

    • Re:Good luck (Score:4, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @09:04PM (#65039439)

      The big miners use custom silicon and pay wholesale rates for electricity.

      Someone using a gamer GPU and paying residential electricity rates can't mine cost-effectively.

    • Only banned for commercial operations. Hobby mining is fine.
    • Itâ(TM)s Russia. All the government has to do is demand that the local electric authority provide a list of every customer using industrial amounts of electricity. If somebody refuses to hand over a list theyâ(TM)ll commit suicide by jumping out a window.

      • Yes, as opposed to here in the US, where utility companies routinely work to protect the privacy and anonymity of their from energy regulawhat the fuck are you talking about? I don't like Russia's authoritarianism any more than you do, but where in the world would utilities companies refuse to give usage data to government bodies tasked with regulating energy usage?
        • Regulating energy production is a public good. Regulating energy usage sounds incredibly nanny-stateish. I can see rationing as a wartime measure but not business as usual.
          • Well that depends on what problem you're trying to solve. If your infrastructure needs to catch up with your usage needs, you can't just snap your fingers and make that happen, and decreasing reliability while that happens because you want to be the cool dad is fucking stupid.
      • by cusco ( 717999 )

        In the US utilities are required to reveal energy usage which would indicate a marijuana grow-op to authorities. They can be fined if they don't, and charges can be pressed against officials who do not comply. A grow-op does a lot less damage to our ecosystem, culture and economy than a DC mining crypto.

      • What about the people not using industrial levels of electricity? You can run a btc miner in an empty apartment or even an occupied one if you cut a deal with the people living there.

        Distribute that among multiple housing units and profit.

    • because the crypto miner is using an entire city block's worth of power. its not hard to see whos using insane amounts of power.
      • Since when? It takes hundreds of rigs to pull that kind of power. If you're running one bitmain ASIC, you are not pulling megawatts.

        • by znrt ( 2424692 )

          If you're running one bitmain ASIC, you are not pulling megawatts.

          nor are you relevant unless there are millions of you, which there aren't because that's a freaking expensive way to watch a toaster fry as a hobby.

    • Re:Good luck (Score:4, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday December 26, 2024 @07:39AM (#65040159)

      It's actually quite easy in a country like Russia. A large gaming rig doesn't use the same energy as a bitcoin miner because people don't game 24/7. It's a country with plentiful gas, where most heating and cooking is *not* electric, and people don't have plenty of solar power. That makes even tiny mining operations stand out in a neighbourhood. Look at the top 1% of houses with an electricity bill that is 3-4 std devs above the average and you're likely to find something illegal, maybe a bitcoin miner, maybe a drug lab, maybe a slum lord.

      The problem is harder in Western Europe where policy is pushing for the electrification of everything. My house with 2-3 bitcoin rigs running full tilt wouldn't beat a normal new house with induction stove, heat pump heating and hot water, and an EV parked in the driveway.

    • I don't think they really give a shit about some guy with a 1200W power supply in a PC case.

      They care about megawatt-scale operations.

  • by supabeast! ( 84658 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @09:44PM (#65039497)

    If Russia stopped spending billions of dollars a day in Ukraine they could build nuclear plants surrounded by data centers. They have the expertise, they have the space, but the money is all going down Putin's toilet of folly.

    • Russia's too rotten. The whole system is set to feed Putin and the next tier down of oligarchs, everyone who can be is stealing. They need Ukraine just to keep the lights on and, you know, to stop showing Russians that there is a more productive and happier way to live.

      Russia will keep attacking Ukraine until Putin's dead or Trump finds a way to hand Ukraine to him despite the EU.

      And I'm not sure Russia does have the expertise any longer. It's in Ukraine or fled Russia when conscription started.

    • by Anonymous Coward
      Imagine if the US did the same. We could really make the US a great place.
    • by cusco ( 717999 )

      Right, because they're foolish to believe that the most aggressive country on Earth wouldn't use Ukraine as a launching pad to destroy them. No siree, anyone imagining that the US would want to break them up and steal their resources must be hysterical, they'd NEVER do that! /s

      • by gtall ( 79522 )

        Yeah, what country wouldn't want to take over a demoralized country with no concept of the rule of law to protect investments, and a kleptocracy class that will steal anything not nailed down. And said demoralized country is neighboring those nice Chinese and their parasitic CCP who actually will steal what is left of Russia blind and will look unkindly toward anyone else attempting the same.

  • by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @11:59PM (#65039699)

    Crypto mining is why I pay 2x as much for electricity today than a few years ago.

    The only difference is the Bit Coin Bros showed up and burn through roughly 3GW of power . . . . PER DAY.

    The short version is, the Bit Coin Bros are using so much damn power they're keeping demand artificially high.
    Everyone knows when the demand for something is high, the prices for said something are also high.

    In effect, the people here get to pay extra high electricity bills so the Bit Coin Bros can make millions by burning
    though the same amount of power as ~300,000 homes. Every. Single. Day. :|

    Russia is actually doing the smart thing here.

    The right way to do it would be to force the miners to build their own electricity generation systems.
    Wind, Solar, Hydro, Thermal, whatever, to help offset the amount of power they're actively burning through.

    Considering the heat they generate, thermal might even be the best choice.

  • PoW blockchain should have been dead in the water by now, but just because itâ(TM)s BITCOIN, it was first, and its total cap is in the bazillions, people just keep ignoring the very obvious energy consumption problem. Expect an eventual divergence in PoW vs. PoS coin value. If the EU follows, thenâ¦things could get very interesting.

"Help Mr. Wizard!" -- Tennessee Tuxedo

Working...