It seems that the flight of bitcoin miners from the People's Republic of China to Kazakhstan has contributed significantly to generating an energy crisis in the latter.
Kazakhstan's head of state has suggested addressing the recent bitcoin mining crisis with nuclear power, according to Cointelegraph.
The Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan has attributed the 8% increase in domestic electricity consumption throughout 2021 to Bitcoin miners.
The country has received at least 87,849 bitcoin miners from Chinese companies this year so far in the wake of China's crackdown on crypto-mining, according to data from the Financial Times.
The surge in demand has led to domestic power supply shortfalls and contributed to unreliable electricity services, according to the Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operator Corporation.
As President Tokayev told bankers at a meeting on November 19 that he believed building a nuclear power plant would help relieve pressure on his country's electrical infrastructure.
While Tokayev has not linked the proposal to using bitcoin mining power, a failure to retain miners in the country could risk losing an estimated 1.58 billion dollars in tax revenue represented by these miners.
A power shortage has already forced the Bitcoin (Xive) mining market to leave Kazakhstan. Deidar Bikbau, co-founder of Xive, said in a tweet on November 25, 2021, that he had to shut down his company's mining farm due to the restriction of electricity supply from the grid.
Kazakhstan is now home to 50 registered digital mining companies and an unknown number of unregistered companies. About 88% of energy in Kazakhstan currently comes from power plants that run on fossil fuels.
