Venezuelan authorities have launched a crackdown on crypto miners in a bid to protect the South American country’s power grid.
In an Instagram post on Friday, the country’s Department of Energy (Spanish acronym: MPPEE) he said which would disconnect all mining operations from the country’s National Electric System (SEN).
Miners are needed to help Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies function as intended. These operations are often large warehouses full of computers that use enormous amounts of energy to mint new digital currencies and maintain a secure cryptographic network.
However, such operations have been criticized by lawmakers around the world for the amount of energy they consume.
MPPEE stated in its publication that the measure was taken in an attempt to “avoid the high impact on demand” on the network and to allow SEN to “continue to offer an efficient and reliable service to all the Venezuelan people”.
The post featured a video of authorities raiding what appears to be crypto mining operations.
Venezuela – which has suffered a devastating economic collapse since 2010 – has long suffered problems with its grid. Although the problem is not as bad as it was back in 2019Some rural areas of the country still suffer blackouts.
Last September, Venezuelan police wholesale a prison where inmates carried out covert Bitcoin mining operations. And in early 2023, the country’s regulator released a crackdown on miners.
Despite this, the country is still interested in using crypto: the state oil company, PDVSA, reportedly wants to use digital assets USDT exchange for its crude oil and fuel exports as a way to circumvent US oil sanctions, Reuters reported last month.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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