Cryptocurrency Mining Removes Waste of Energy in Ukraine

The Ukrainian energy ministry plans to exploit the excess energy produced by its power plants by mining cryptocurrency. The State believes that such use of digital could constitute a source of wealth creation.

A very large number of countries around the world are currently in containment due to the Covid-19 epidemic. This situation leads to a drop in energy consumption. Between March 23 and April 19, it plunged 16% in France.

In Ukraine also, containment results in lower consumption. And that leads to excess energy, which is not exploited. The country's authorities are therefore considering ways to monetize these surpluses.

Consume surplus electricity for mining

For the Ministry of Energy, which posted a post on Facebook, the crypto-mining could be a serious lead, beyond the Covid-19 crisis. The State indeed wishes fight against wasted energy, especially through the development of digital.

To transform this "passive" into "active", the Ukrainian ministry therefore suggests using the surplus of electricity for cryptocurrency mining. "This would not only allow maintain the guaranteed load on nuclear power plants, but also to ensure that companies can attract additional funds He justifies.

"This would pave the way for a fundamentally new economy, new approaches, a new market model," said the Ukrainian government. According to information from the Russian-speaking press, the minister seized the main energy supplier in the country on this matter.

The public company Energoatom must therefore study the potential means of implementing crypto-mining in the country's nuclear power plants by May 8. It would be a first for a State.

An American power plant converted to crypto-mining

A first for the government, but not for a Ukrainian nuclear power plant. In fact, in 2019, an investigation revealed that unscrupulous employees of such a sensitive site were mining cryptocurrency thanks to the resources of the central.

Other comparable episodes have hit the headlines in recent years, often on sites with significant computing power. In February 2018, the Russian authorities arrested engineers from the Russian Nuclear Center. They hijacked a supercomputer in order to mine.

In the same year, it was the Australian Meteorological Bureau that found a similar crime involving employees. Cointelegraph recalls, however, that power plants have already been operated for authorized purposes of cryptocurrency mining.

In March, a private company based in the United States developed this new activity. The crypto-mining allows it to generate $ 50,000 in Bitcoin every day thanks to the computing power of its infrastructure and direct access to an energy source.