In Abkhazia, the Parliament has adopted amendments to the Criminal Code, according to which equipment for cryptocurrency mining will be seized and confiscated through the court.
Illegal mining is one of the main reasons for the serious energy crisis that the republic has been experiencing since 2020. However, so far it has been fought sparingly and without much success.
According to the rules still in force, mining equipment is temporarily seized and sent to the Interior Ministry for storage in a special warehouse, and the owner is fined 200,000 rubles [about $2200] for each kilowatt of power.
During the operation of this scheme, some of the equipment was later officially returned to the owners under their guarantees that they would move their mining farms out of the republic.
But the authorities themselves have already recognized that such methods of fighting have proved ineffective, as the energy consumed by the republic has increased from 2 to 3 billion kilowatt hours since 2020.
Now President Aslan Bzhania is insisting on toughening the legislation. At a closed-door meeting with members of parliament on December 11, Bzhania said that the new law on seizure of equipment with subsequent confiscation should be adopted immediately, extending it to transformers used exclusively for mining.
fight against cryptomining in Abkhazia
Toponyms, terminology, views and opinions expressed by the author are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of JAMnews or any employees thereof. JAMnews reserves the right to delete comments it considers to be offensive, inflammatory, threatening or otherwise unacceptable
