Topic: Mining in South American and Central Asian countries - page 2. (Read 1823 times)

This is difficult to explain because in most of the world there is such thing as the rule of law. But current Venezuela is different. Think wild west or medieval justice. You "could" do everything by "the rules", and still get all the aforementioned. Or you could smuggle the asics and keep a low profile and still manage to go undetected.

Right now when a regime change is imminent, anything goes. We just don't know what will happen. Things were much better before 2016 when it was "unregulated" and the officials didn't even know anything about it...

Perhaps the new government will regulate crypto favorably, given so many people survived the socialist economy nightmare with it. But i don't expect the electricity to remain this cheap for long. This new government needs to reinstate the rule of law, so potential investors can clearly know what is ok and what is not, instead or rolling the dice everyday...

You were asking about people with experience setting mines up in other countries which I have.

I am not quite sure where you were going with the Chiquita link exactly. Its headquarters are in the UK and the US (also the company was teh successor of another american company, it is not of swiss origin, it just happens their international headquarters are located there). Of course they have south american ties since that is where the fruit that they trade in is grown and sold. This is also a billion dollar company with 20k+ employees. I dont see how you can comepare this to an entrepreneur trying to start a business in an unregulated country in an unregulated industry based in a country they know nothing about.

Obviously there are wealthy people everywhere from doing any number of thousands of different things, that does not mean that anyone starting a business in that general area is going to make it big. Also it is a little concerning how you brush aside the fact that they had to fund terrorist organizations to survive off as just part of doing business. As recently as last year it has been proven they still fund terrorists down there....which is why in my original response to you I mentioned the corruption and other south american issues are a direct red flag for anyone thinking about doing business there.

Also bitcoin itself is illegal in Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, and in Venezuela until recently you could be arrested and imprisoned with all of your property seized just because you were mining crypto. I dont know about you, but South America doesnt seem like the most welcoming place for this type of business, as I have previously mentioned.

Governments, in general, do not miss the opportunity to cash in on anything that makes a profit. They make up any kind of excuse to guarantee a share of the profit.

A 'crackdown' in paraguay?? Isn't it legal? I assume such since the government is helping coordinate the building of the biggest mining operation ever according to that article above.


The average tech blogger isn't going to setup shop down there for sure because electricity is cheap... However... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquita_Brands_International
Chiquita Banana is a Swiss company. I'm confident starting big businesses in developing countries happens.

Granted, they have been forced to fund cartels before, they still manage to pull quite a profit since all that has blown over. The point is entrepreneurs are ready to take risks. Making fortunes is not easy however you cut it. I'm not suggesting some Montreal trader drop everything, move to S.A. and learn spanish... There are very, very, truly rich South Americans and Uzbekistanis (probably some that speak English), or there must be other non-local people with some experience there and some in crypto.

I'm hoping to draw some of the locals out of the woodwork and get their two cents.

I cant speak for anyone else but there are some serious challenges when trying to build something like this in a country you are not from. You dont understand laws, customs, or anything of that nature where you are going. You dont speak the language so a proper labor force and contact with contractors can be a pain. Trusting your multi million dollar facility in the hands of locals is a scary proposition, and living down there or spending massive amounts of time down to secure the facility would be pretty terrible considering the distances involved. There are obviously a number of other socioeconomic issues to deal with as well.

For example id shy away from ANY and ALL soviet bloc countries such as Uzbekistan based on the current political climate and the issues we have in the US with Russia right now. I would also stay away from South America as a general rule because of the massive amounts of corruption, struggle, and strife South America seems to constantly have. The US border crisis is in no small part due to the mass exodus of people in South America trying to come up this way through Mexico.

Here in Brazil there are some people who pay a fixed rate of energy, especially for those who live in more isolated places but because the available power is not so high, it is not possible to create a large mining farm. As the energy tariff here has been very expensive in recent years for those who produce photovoltaic energy prefers to sell to the utility than to mine. The choice of many people is to really mine in Paraguay where the tariff is very low, but there are reports here that there is already a government crackdown on the country's miners.

I have noticed there is very little discussion on (and in fact relatively few) mines operating in many regions where the discussion should be wide-open.

Paraguay is building the largest mine ever.
https://www.coindesk.com/bitfury-partners-to-launch-bitcoin-mining-centers-in-paraguay

Uzbekistan charges no tax on crypto, and among the lowest energy costs around.

Here is a list of Bitcoin legality by Country:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country_or_territory#Asia

Here are some national average electricity prices:
https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Uzbekistan/electricity_prices/

Who is working on a project outside USA, Canada, China, the usual places these English posts seem to focus on?
For those with experience, what kinds of challenges have you faced setting up mines outside your country?