According to Cambridge University experts, the BTC miners' energy consumption index shows that Kazakhstan closes the top three countries in terms of capacity contribution to the Bitcoin hashrate.
According to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF), Kazakhstan has been holding the third place in Bitcoin hashrate for a year now, after surpassing Russia in 2021. The Central Asian country follows immediately after the United States and China. As of January 2022, Kazakhstan's share in hashrate was 13.22%.
For comparison, the historical leaders in production, the United States and China, occupy a share of the HTS hashrate of 37.84% and 21.11%, respectively.
According to Cambridge experts, over the same period of time, Kazakhstan's absolute (average monthly) contribution to the BTC hashrate was 24.8 Eh/s, the USA and China contributed 71 Eh/s and 39.6 Eh/s, respectively. These leaders of the mining industry strongly bypass countries such as Malaysia, Germany and Iran.
Back in 2020, the International Energy Agency (IEA), funded by the European Union, noted Kazakhstan's strong dependence on non-renewable energy sources, such as oil (more than 50%), coal (28%) and natural gas (17%). According to the IEA experts, most of the coal in the country is used to produce electricity and heat, and the lion's share of oil goes to end users, especially owners of motor vehicles.
Last week, the legislators of Kazakhstan approved a package of laws on the mining of cryptocurrencies. The purpose of the package of four projects is to create a legislative framework for the mining industry and the turnover of secured and unsecured cryptocurrencies.
At the beginning of the month, the government of the Russian Federation demanded to update the agreement on joint activities of the energy system of Russia and Kazakhstan, including for the purpose of supplying electricity for cryptocurrency mining.
