Topic: [2018-11-27] Norway Bitcoin Miners Eye Exodus to Sweden after Electricity Tax Hi (Read 142 times)

Norway Bitcoin Miners Eye Exodus to Sweden after Electricity Tax Hike

The Norwegian government’s decision to scrap tax subsidy on the power conferred to bitcoin miners is prompting them to migrate offshore.

According to Erik Svensson, who serves as the director to Boden Business Agency, a Sweden-based data center company, bitcoin miners from neighboring Norway region are interested in moving their data centers to Sweden. He confirmed being contacted by many of them, stating that these mining firms are visiting Sweden to continue their business operations away from Norway’s tax burdens.

The Swedish government charges around 0.5 øre per kWh in electricity tax from data centers while their Norwegian counterpart would begin charging 16.58 øre for the same next year. The law will specifically impact data centers involved in mining cryptocurrencies which, according to Norwegian parliamentary representative Lars Haltbrekken, is the “dirtiest form of cryptographic output.”

The decision is likely to hammer down miners that are already reporting huge losses following the recent cryptocurrency market crash. Power tariffs hugely influence the return on investment of mining firms, for proof-of-work requires heavy computations, thus more electricity. Countries like China, which offers subsidized electricity to crypto miners, prove to be more beneficial to the crypto minting data centers, with each Bitcoin block costing as high $3,500.

CCN | https://www.ccn.com/norway-bitcoin-miners-eye-exodus-to-sweden-after-electricity-tax-hike/