United States Senator Ted Cruz believes that his country should be using natural gas to mine Bitcoin (BTC) instead of flaring it. Speaking during Friday’s Texas Blockchain Summit, Senator Cruz asserted that Bitcoin mining can be used to monetize energy created through oil and gas extraction rather than burning it, arguing that there is “enormous opportunity for Bitcoin [...] to capture that gas instead of wasting it.” According to a transcription of the talk shared to social media by Coin Metrics founder Nic Carter, Cruz noted that half of the natural gas flared in the country is currently being burned …

Link Global Technologies, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange, is facing major potential penalties for operating unauthorized power plants in the province of Alberta. The Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), the province’s power utility regulator, issued on Sept. 24 another enforcement submission against Link Global, with enforcement staff recommending several penalties for violations of Alberta’s legislative requirements. According to a document shared with Cointelegraph, the AUC’s enforcement staff recommended that Link Global should pay an economic disgorgement of about 2 million Canadian dollars ($1.6 million) for financial gains from unlawful electricity generation. The regulator is seeking …

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele shared a video showing the apparent progress of the country’s Bitcoin (BTC) mining plant powered by volcanic geothermal energy. The video shows an overview of a power generation facility, with technicians enabling crypto mining rigs. First steps... #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/duhHvmEnym — Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) September 28, 2021 Bukele did not elaborate much on the process shown on the video, only writing “first steps” with a Bitcoin tag alongside emojis depicting a volcano and El Salvador’s national flag. The president’s office did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. The post comes months after Bukele announced plans …

A new study suggests that Bitcoin has already used more power so far this year than it did in all of 2020. By the end of the year, the Bitcoin network will have consumed 91 terawatt-hours (TWh), and it has already consumed more than the estimated 67 TWh for all of 2020, according to a Monday Bloomberg report. The precise energy consumption figures are variable and not easy to calculate accurately, but the trend is clear — they are increasing. The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index currently estimates that Bitcoin is set to consume an even greater 95.68 TWh by …

Iran will once again allow Bitcoin and crypto miners to operate in the country from the last week of September. According to a report by Iran’s Financial Tribune, Tavanir, the country’s power generation organization, made the decision known earlier in August. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Iran’s government banned Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto mining operations back in May. At the time, the decision was reportedly made to prevent miners from overburdening the grid during the hot summer months. Indeed, Bitcoin miners have been blamed for incessant blackouts and power shortages in Iran. Such has been the extent of the problem …

Last week, Cointelegraph reported on the seizure of 3,800 PlayStation consoles allegedly being used to mine cryptocurrency. The confiscated gaming units were among a stash of hardware discovered by Ukrainian authorities during a raid on a farmhouse accused of tampering with electric meters to steal power from the local grid. Based on the initial reports at the time, the PS4 consoles, graphics cards, processing units and other hardware found at the scene was being used for illegal crypto mining operations. However, according to an investigation by Ukrainian business publication Delo, the seized PlayStation consoles were being used to generate content …

A major cryptocurrency and blockchain association in Russia is launching a project to bring global crypto mining operations to the country amid a Chinese crypto mining crackdown. The Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, or RACIB, announced an initiative aimed at transferring global computing resources for crypto mining to the Russian Federation. More information on the project is expected to be released at a later date, a spokesperson for RACIB told Cointelegraph. In order to promote and implement the project, RACIB is closely cooperating with Russian government authorities and state corporations, forming a range of joint working groups …

The Chinese government continues cracking down on the cryptocurrency mining industry by suspending crypto mining operations in another province. Authorities at Anhui, a small province in eastern China, have announced a set of measures to tackle growing electricity demand and an associated power supply shortage in the next three years, local news agency Hefei Online reported on Wednesday. As part of Anhui’s efforts to curb energy consumption, the province plans to shut down crypto mining projects and scrutinize new initiatives that require large amounts of energy consumption. Local authorities also plan to adopt new practices for building data centers as …

Ukrainian authorities have raided an allegedly illicit crypto farm in the country. According to an official announcement from the Security Service of Ukraine, the facility was located on the former premises of JSC Vinnytsiaoblenergo, an electricity supply company. The illegal crypto miners concealed their activities by manipulating electricity meters to steal electricity from JSC Vinnytsiaoblenergo. Described as the largest underground mining operation discovered by the Ukrainian police, the farm housed nearly 5,000 computer equipment units, including 3,800 PlayStation 4 consoles, over 500 graphics cards, 50 processing units, notebooks, phones and flash drives. The SBU estimated the state’s monthly losses due …

Bitcoin’s total estimated annual electricity consumption has plummeted nearly 60%, falling from the all-time peak above 143 terawatt-hours (TWh) in May to as low as 62 TWh in early July, according to data from Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI). This is the lowest energy consumption rate recorded since early November 2020. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s annualized electricity consumption is estimated at 67 TWh, while the upper bound consumption, or the absolute maximum total electricity expenditure based on the worst case assumption, stands at 162 TWh, down from 520 TWh in mid-May. The lower bound estimate, which corresponds …

Iran’s challenge with the ever-increasing electricity consumption has reached new heights, leading the country to halt electricity exports. Abuzer Salihi, general manager of Iran’s electricity distribution company Tevanir, announced on state television that it has reduced electricity exports to zero “so that there is no problem in electricity supply in the country.” He said that the electricity supply to Afghanistan’s Herat province, which imported 70% of its electricity from Iran, completely stopped in order to meet domestic needs. According to the numbers shared by Tevanir, the daily electricity demand reached over 65,000 megawatts, while production is around 54,000 megawatts. Aside …

As Kazakhstan becomes increasingly popular for cryptocurrency mining, the country’s president has signed a new law introducing an extra levy for crypto miners. President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev recently signed last a new law that imposes an additional tax fee for energy utilized by crypto miners operating in the country. The new fees will take effect starting in January 2022. According to local news agency Kursiv, the new law introduces an additional fee of 1 Kazakhstan tenge ($0.00233) per kilowatt-hour used by cryptocurrency miners. The additional tax levy is part of a series of legislative amendments to …