Uzbekistan The Department of Energy has introduced a new bill that threatens to strangle the cryptocurrency industry in Central Asia.
Published on friday law Project will lead to a sharp increase in electricity tariffs levied on miners – members of the crypto industry who use powerful computers to record and secure transactions on blockchains.
The bill says that “in order to stimulate energy saving, increase energy efficiency in industries and the non-profit sector, and also to support the rational use of electricity,” enterprises working with crypto assets, including miners, will be required to pay three times as much as they currently charged for their business category, regardless of their capacity.
The price of electricity for ordinary consumers is currently around 3,5 cents per kWh. Because the Mining is very energy intensive, companies are looking for jurisdictions with lower electricity costs to maximize their return on investment.
The bill is open for public comment until October 12. According to a publication on the government website of Uzbekistan, 9 comments and suggestions have been published so far, and viewers can vote for their preferred answers.
Salvar Rasulev, a commentator who introduced himself as an IT entrepreneur, argues that the price hike would only double the miners' off, effectively shutting the country out of industry. Nevertheless, according to him, mining is useful for Uzbekistan, as it brings foreign currency into the country.
Rasulev writes:
“The mining industry consumes a lot of electricity, but brings much more profit to Uzbekistan ... Instead of supporting a business that would allow Uzbekistan to receive hundreds of millions of dollars for export, which our president and our economy require, you close this opportunity and instead give it to others ".
Another respondent, Srapionov Vladimir Ashotovich, takes an alternative view, saying that raising prices for miners is the right thing to do, as they “do not provide any significant product or service for the country and society” and waste valuable energy, “heating the atmosphere” .
However, in general, most comments suggest that the government should stimulate cryptocurrency in the country and take a differentiated approach to pricing for electricity, depending on which energy sources the miners use.
Uzbekistan is self-sufficient, has large reserves of oil and natural gas. Like Russia and other countries that previously formed the USSR, it also has many industrial power plants left behind by the Soviet industrial machine.