Belarus President Invites Crypto Miners to Take Advantage of Surplus Electricity

The president of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, is encouraging an increasing level of cryptocurrency mining in his nation. Lukashenko stated many reasons for this at the opening of the Petrikovsky Mining and Processing Plant a few days before.

He said that bitcoin mining at home is more lucrative than menial agricultural employment overseas. Strawberry harvesting in Poland is one of them. He also advocated for the building of greenhouses for environmentally friendly Bitcoin mining.

Furthermore, the Eastern European country’s president urged workers of the Belaruskali fertilizer business to begin mining “cryptocurrencies or whatever it’s called” utilizing whatever electricity the country could supply.

“We must realize that they are not hanging for us at anyplace. If somebody is waiting […] Perhaps on the farms, as Ukrainians often remark, the Polish or Germans have to wriggle, picking strawberries,”

Furthermore, he said that the nation has sufficient energy to run the cryptocurrency mining network. “Make something out of electricity. Finally, begin mining bitcoin, or whatever it is called. There is sufficient power in the nation.”

Significantly, Belarus is one of the world’s most crypto-friendly countries. Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptos have been legalized in the nation since December 2017. This occurred after the passage of the Digital Economy Decree. The action was intended to boost private-sector development and attract international investment.

Furthermore, the country has suspended all cryptocurrency-linked taxes through 2023 and intends to encourage the usage of crypto currencies. The biggest bank in Belarus launched a bitcoin trading business in November 2020. Customers may now use their Visa cards to purchase and trade digital goods. Even though no formal declaration has been made, the president’s remarks hint to the approval of cryptocurrency mining operations.

Belarus may follow in the footsteps of Iran and Kazakhstan as a result of this. In July 2019, the Iranian government approved Bitcoin mining. Following a series of trade restrictions, the effort appeared to be perfect for rescuing the country’s collapsing economy. The country even explored adopting digital money for foreign commerce at one time.

Nonetheless, owing to numerous outages caused by illicit mining, the authorities subsequently outlawed Bitcoin mining in the nation. The nation still intends to re-enter the activities at the beginning of September.

Kazakhstan, on thecontrary, joined the Bitcoin mining industry in the aftermath of China’s massive crackdown on cryptos and mining.During the same period, Chinese miners began to move to the United States and other North American countries. This mostly put a stop to China’s dominance of the Bitcoin mining business, but it also made the ecosystem more decentralized.

Bitcoin was trading at roughly $50,424 at the time of writing, up 1.4% in the previous 24 hours. The top cryptocurrency also had a $39.7 billion 24-hour trading volume. BTC dominated the cryptocurrency market, accounting for about 41% of the total market capitalization.