Racib (Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain), has announced an initiative to transfer hardware dedicated to crypto mining to the Russian Federation, cooperating with Russian government authorities and state-owned companies, forming a series of working groups joint with the local structures, is written in the press release.
Racib is an association that brings together members of the Russian cryptocurrency market and is active in the sector in terms of draft laws and dialogue with institutions. For this project it is already collaborating with some foreign partners, including a consortium of some of the largest Chinese companies related to cryptocurrency mining. The announcement highlights that the consortium companies control “more than 25% of the global hash rate of major cryptocurrencies”.
The current squeeze on the crypto economy in East Asia, the lack of energy capacity in the region and, consequently, the active migration of miners from China, which controlled more than 60% of the world’s mines, could favor the shift of hashrate into the Russian territory while attracting foreign investments. Situation favored by low electricity costs and a crypto-friendly policy.
According to the statement, Russia is the fourth largest country in terms of electricity generation, generating over 1,100 terawatt hours of energy per year, behind only China, the United States and India. According to the announcement, over the course of 2021, Russia installed more than 1,100 megawatts of new power plants using wind farms in areas such as the Rostov region, Kalmykia, Adygea and Stavropol Krai. The new initiative aims to attract cryptocurrency miners from around the world, especially now that Chinese mining companies are fleeing the country after the authorities made such operations illegal. Russia isn’t the only country offering miners its energy capacity to emerge as a major player in the industry. In June, during the miners’ capitulation in China, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez publicly called on Chinese companies to consider setting up data centers in the US city.
