Kosovo authorities have announced the seizure of a significant number of Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines in the country. These interventions follow the government’s recent announcement that cryptocurrency mining will be banned until the end of the state of energy emergency.
Crypto mining machines seized
On her Twitter account, Kosovan Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli announced the seizure of almost 300 mining machines (Antminer models) by the police.
Dhjetëra mijëra Euro në muaj të taksapaguesve të kursyera = energji për qindëra familje kosovare gjatë krizës.
Falemnderit @Kosovo_Police dhe Dogana e Kosovës KosovoCustoms https://t.co/byb4GzOfHR
– Artane Rizvanolli (@Artane_R) January 8, 2022
The seizure itself follows an announcement by Kosovar police that they had found 67 mining machines in a private flat in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Two days later, the driver of a car was also arrested with 42 machines in his boot. He was simply interviewed and released, but his machines were confiscated.
As reported a few days ago, Kosovo has banned cryptocurrency mining on its territory, as it is going through a serious energy crisis.
As such, the minister says in her tweet:
“Tens of thousands of euros per month from taxpayers saved = energy for hundreds of Kosovar families during the crisis. “
These different seizures are controversial within the country’s mining community as mining is a legal activity in normal times in Kosovo.
Global power shortage
On 24 December, the Kosovo government officially declared a 60-day energy emergency plan.
In the same month, one of the country’s largest coal-fired power plants was shut down due to a technical failure. Following this event, Kosovo was forced to import electricity from neighbouring Serbia. However, as the surrounding regions are experiencing a freezing winter, the price of energy has increased de facto.
The country has a total of 1.8 million inhabitants and imports 40% of its electricity.
However, cryptocurrency mining within the country is of interest to many locals as it is an extremely lucrative business. One anonymous Bitcoin miner claimed to earn €2400 per month while paying only €170 for electricity over the same period.
Bitcoin’s share of global energy consumption (Source: Cambridge University)
The most energy-intensive method is Proof of Work (PoW) as it requires specialised machines to be run to perform calculations to finalise transactions. This is the method used for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s mining continues to raise questions among the world’s governments from an energy perspective, although overall it consumes just 0.4% of the world’s energy.
