Topic: Russia Becomes World’s Second-Largest Crypto Miner (Read 1151 times)

The Ministry of Energy proposes to increase electricity transmission tariffs for industrial cryptocurrency mining farms by two to five times. Kommersant reports this with reference to sources.

According to their information, the tariff increase will primarily affect energy-deficient regions, including Buryatia, Trans-Baikal Territory and Irkutsk region. A significant portion of mining data centers are located there, which is already leading to a shortage of generation.

The ministry’s goal is to force miners to move to regions with excess capacity.
https://forklog.com/news/smi-uznali-o-planah-znachitelno-povysit-tarify-dlya-majnerov-v-rf

In Russia, energy companies are already trying to refuse to connect new miners in cities to energy systems, because there are no laws, and if this capacity is later needed for other needs, then it will no longer be possible to disconnect the miners, because they have already been assigned a certain limit on the use of electricity. In the coming years, miners may be prohibited from connecting to energy systems.

In 2023, Russian miners consumed 1.5 GW of electricity, said Nikolai Shulginov, head of the Russian Ministry of Energy. He is quoted by RIA Novosti agency.

At the same time, consumption continues to grow, Shulginov noted. Currently, cryptocurrency miners are most actively burning electricity in the Siberian Federal District.

“In total, the country’s electricity consumption by miners is 1.5 GW, and according to forecasts, this figure will be increased to 5-6 GW,” the minister said.
https://ru.beincrypto.com/skolko-potrebili-energii-majnery/

The only paradox is that Russia is in 2nd place in the World, but there is no law on mining.

My few cents: I don’t know if there are unregistered miners in America, but in Russian communities there are many miners with 10-100 ASICs or more who mine cryptocurrencies in the residential sector at reduced rates for residents of the country. If the electricity consumption of unregistered miners is added to the electricity consumption of official miners, it will differ much from the official one.

Russia Becomes World's Second Crypto Miner It's actually very exciting because when two world superpowers are giving importance to this system, it means that the days ahead will be good for crypto.Russia will definitely use more generational equipment to mine crypto that America is the first to employ workers Russia has chosen this approach to keep its economic system alive as a result of various world sanctions They know that as a result, various foreign companies will not come there due to the ban.hashrate Growth is good for any country, just different for the United States.Russia's position as the second Crypto miner country has been clarified by one of their organizations. This is certainly good news for the cryptocurrency It's a good day they're staying here.If they can continue to miner with their proper management then I expect them to establish themselves as a major crypto and miner nation by 2025 to 2030.High by low energy using current technology hashrate Achievable.As far as I know, 60% of all Bitcoin crypto miners are powered by renewable energy.To remove limits on Russia's electricity production Expensive transmission lines have to be built And a lot of energy will be wasted.Russia should use US full for crypto miners by changing modern technology then work will be easier and better environment for intensive mining workers and their work will be easier and Russia And I think America will leave.
America three four gigawatts Pride in mining power may not last as Russia ranks second in 2023 as per latest update so expect them to break all records and go first very soon.
Lastly, I think Russia is making the best effort to become a crypto miner, and they are expected to be the number one crypto miner using modern technology.So I think the first position seems to go.America is a very rich country, they have many technologies and renewable energy projects with modern technology, but Russia is far behind, so I don't think they can match America much if they try Can move on and in many cases have locations over from America.My little point is that Russia's second position as a crypto miner should be our joy.

I live in Russia and now the country has a surplus of energy resources due to sanctions, but this is not the case in all areas. In Russia, the energy system is more practical, because if cities do not have enough of their own power, then you can always take what you need from the general energy system. I am sure that it is more profitable for large companies to buy large volumes at auctions on the energy market than to build gas generators, and then repair and protect them. And the electricity supplier is responsible for the uninterrupted supply of electricity.

Some people make millions of dollars a year doing flare gas mining https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/02/12/23-year-old-texans-made-4-million-mining-bitcoin-off-flared-natural-gas.html.

It is indeed not easy but doable with a great potential, speak of Russia, obvisoily I do not know how things work there, I assume you live in Russia?

I read the news that such gas will be used for mining, but each country has its own difficulties. Such sources have limited power, and miners require more power.
It is necessary to install generators near each mining site and protect the equipment. All equipment will be in different places, which increases maintenance and security costs. I saw mining factories in Russia. They are located behind 2 fences and there are different security companies near each fence. Everything that is poorly guarded in Russia will be stolen.

Yup pretty much like mining Bitcoin off flare gas, would be pretty difficult to build the residential buildings or normal factory/company in the places you usually drill for oil, but to drop a generator and a few containers in the middle of nowhere to start mining is pretty doable, which is why people use flare gas to mine bitcoin but not for many other businesses.

Mining farms are not factories that employ hundreds or thousands of people. Therefore, mining farms are built at old factories that have a direct connection from hydroelectric power plants or close areas to hydroelectric power stations, so as not to be connected to the city's power grid, and workers live and work on a rotational basis.
Basically, the data centers of these companies are located in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Irkutsk Region, where the most powerful hydroelectric power plants are located.

Those are some good figures for a country that has just started, with the sanctions imposed on Russia I think that large mining corps are probably getting some sick power deals below average prices, Russia has a lot of oil and gas that they can't easily sell, so making use of that for mining is a win-win, the electricity infrastructure might not be ready for a huge expansion but what's good about mining is "you can place the container anywhere", so just build the power plant and place the container nearby.

Usually, the most expensive and time-consuming aspect of electricity is power transmission, so for the average company or business that needs to operate within the city -- it could be a huge issue if the city doesn't have enough power infrastructure, for mining as long it's on and has internet connection the money keeps coming in.

The income of mining companies in the Russian Federation amounted to 11.5 billion, the leader is Bitriver
Among all listed companies, Bitriver is the leader in terms of revenue. She received 7.88 billion rubles. In 2022, the company's computing power exceeded 300 MW for the first time. Another 6 facilities with a capacity of 900 MW are still being developed.

Second place goes to Intelion Data Systems. Its profit amounted to 1.03 billion rubles for 2022. The company has become an industrial operator for the sale and maintenance of computing equipment since 2017.

The third place is occupied by BitCluster with revenue of ₽716 million for the last year. Now the company operates more than 15,000 devices for cryptocurrency mining in the Irkutsk and Ivanovo regions, as well as the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The total computing power of BitCluster is approximately 60 MW.
https://freedmanclub.com/dohod-mayning-kompaniy-v-rf-sostavil-11-5-mlrd-rubley/

The latest official data is impressive, but there is still a lot of unregistered mining in Russia

Yes! I saw the news! Russia's ascent to the world's second-largest cryptocurrency mining country in 2023 is driven by its abundant, cheap electricity and a growing number of mining facilities. This expansion in crypto mining reflects Russia's increasing role in the global digital currency ecosystem.

"The bitcoin mining industry in Russia is booming, and hardware manufacturers Bitmain and MicroBT are positioning themselves to reap the benefits.
More machines are flowing into Russia than anywhere else in the world, Ethan Vera, chief operating officer at global mining services firm Luxor Technologies, said at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2023 festival held last month in Austin, Texas.
Russia has always been a powerhouse in terms of Bitcoin hash rate – a measure of computational power being contributed to the blockchain – thanks to the availability of cheap energy and its cold climate. Russia’s share of world mining gained as China banned the industry in 2021, making it the second- or third-largest in the world, according to one of its biggest mining firms."
https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/07/28/amid-sanctions-bitcoin-mining-machines-are-flowing-into-russia-as-industry-thrives/

"Experts pointed to a decrease in energy consumption by miners in the Russian Federation by 49% in 2022
Today in Russia, the annual electricity consumption for bitcoin mining is less than 5 billion kWh, according to the July report of the Analytical Center for the Fuel and Energy Complex
MOSCOW, 27 July. /TASS/. The volume of energy consumption attributable to the mining of cryptocurrencies in Russia decreased by 49% in 2022. This is stated in the July report of the Analytical Center for the Fuel and Energy Complex (available at TASS).

Today, in Russia, the annual electricity consumption for bitcoin mining is less than 5 billion kWh, follows from the data of the ACTEK, while in the world it has reached a plateau at the level of 100-110 billion kWh.

According to Finam analyst Alexander Kovalev, the share of mining in the energy consumption of the Russian Federation is about 2.5-3%, while the official estimate is slightly less than 1%."
https://tass.ru/ekonomika/18373339

In Russia, in the Irkutsk region and neighboring regions, the police and the investigative committee began to fight the miners.
Everyone knows that in Russia a lot of mining equipment is imported into the country without paying customs taxes. The police also know this, and after the confiscation requires documents. Most likely, a lot of equipment will be confiscated without documents, or it will lie in police warehouses for years and become obsolete.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.62534408

yes, but some institutions don't think that way. I'm just worried feds will randomly show up because my business uses btc and I recived some 'illegal' coins. That will be a great cover for them

Russian villages don't have the latest equipment and maybe even 3g. I looked at the experts, and they advise buying a programmable modem that can connect to an antenna that is not directed to the village, but to the forest or the road, and there are fewer problems.

In Russia, such an Internet costs about $ 8, but it has a speed limit of up to 10 megabits per second.
You are lucky, I can only have good speed on one provider at night.

You are welcome, here is a list of some of the known free mining proxy

1-Ckproxy > Open-source but pretty much outdated, and doesn't work with most pools I tested (works just fine with Cksolo pool)
2- Braiins Proxy >Open-source, works with most pools but not all (can't recall which ones that didn't but they are a few), it's Linux based so won't run on Windows unless you use Docker.
3-Antpool proxy > Closed-source, doesn't work well with Cksolo pool, works great with Kano.is and most other pools, windows based for anything below 10k gears, the easiest proxy to set up, and has a very nice GUI.

As bizarre as that sounds I personally prefer antpool proxy and have only used it ever since I tested it (I tested most other public proxies before it, hopping not to use anything Bitmain-related, but nothing worked better), I tested it for a very long time without an issue, just make sure the pool you use can handle the difficulty change required by proxy, a list of the pools that I remember to have tested on Antpool proxy:

Viabtc, Antpool, Binance pool, and Kano.is, = worked great.
Cksolo > did not work.

If you need help in setting up any of those proxies, you can start a new topic and I will be willing to help.

Thank you very much for your answer ; it's very interesting! I'm going to experiment this very soon as I think it could help me a lot. Until now I've always operated in the classic way, 1 ASIC = 1 worker independent of the others, I wasn't aware of all that.  I think it could have a good impact in terms of network utilization.

Two unrelated things, to say the least, a mining proxy is a piece of software that acts as a local mining pool for the mining gears and acts as a single miner for the actual mining pool.

Basically, it's a piece of software that runs on Windows for example, and it has the following parameters that you need to enter.

- Pool URL (Viabtc, Kano, or whatever pool you use)
- Worker (worker for the same pool above)
- Pass (password for the same pool above)
- Port (for your miners to connect to).

And then when it's up and running, it will connect to the mining pool, the pool will treat it as an actual miner, and then on your actual miner's config page instead of entering the actual pool you use, the data will be like so

-Pool URL (The IP address of the machine that runs the mining proxy software, an example would be 192.168.1.2:9999)
-Worker (can be anything you chose)
-Pass (depends but usually x)

On the proxy status page, you will be able to see all your miners' shares as if it was a mining pool, on the pool, you will only see 1 miner which is whatever worker you set on the proxy, what is going to happen is your miners combined at the proxy will be submitting way too many shares, the pool's software will treat it as it's one giant super miner and will have to raise share difficulty to keep up a good pace.

Example: you have 50* S9, the pool wants you to be able to submit 10 shares per minute, so you will be submitting 500 shares per minute, let's say that will be 50 MB per minute.

When using a proxy, your miner could still submit 500 shares to the proxy, but the proxy will only submit 10 shares per minute to the actual pool (those 10 shares at current difficulty are worth exactly as much as those 500 shares at the lower difficulty), so now your network traffic on the WAN size is only 1MB per minute, so 50 miners connecting via a mining proxy will only consume as much data as a single miner.

When you have a somewhat pretty slow connection, connecting many miners will start to cause issues, reducing the number of connections to the pool to just 1 always helps, in fact, a mining proxy is a must when you go past a certain number of miners, it would be a nightmare having to route thousands of miners without a mining proxy.

To be honest, for now I am satisfied with this solution. The stability is perfect, and so is the quality of the connection, so I have nothing to complain about. I'm lucky that the cost is minimal, around 12 usd per month for unlimited data. I was worried at first when I read somewhere on the Internet that in summer or on religious holidays the network would be congested, but this has never been the case so far. Maybe it's because I'm in the middle of nowhere and the place in question is a village with fewer than 100 inhabitants 


A mining proxy? What would be the concrete difference with a VPN as a miner?

The number of users should not affect the stabelity of 4g connection if the provider is near modest, of course, if they account for 50 users and end up having 100 users the service will be affected, so it all depends on the service provider and how they size thier infrastructure.

One downside of using 4g is the cost, almost all packages have limited qouta، if you run a large farm you will be spending a lot on internet alone, the only solution for that would be using a mining proxy, in fact, using a mining proxy will also solve a lot of issues that you encounter from bad internet services.

My 4G modem works much worse in the summer and loses connection more often. In the summer, a lot of people relax in the village, and the more Internet users, the worse the connection and the more often the miners disconnect. In winter, the 4G modem gives good speed and stability, although sometimes there are shutdowns. You depend on the number of people who use the same base station.

"Now, according to BitRiver, the amount of electricity consumed by miners in the United States exceeded 4 GW, in Russia it is about 2 GW (including the volume of industrial mining, which, according to the company, exceeded 1.2 GW). The Russian industry is catching up with the American one at an accelerated pace, BitRiver notes.

Since mid-April 2023, the demand for mining services in Russia from large customers from China has been growing noticeably. In addition, since the beginning of the year, an increase in demand for hosting equipment for cryptocurrency mining has been observed by large businesses from Russia, the CIS, the Arab world, China, India and other friendly countries."

Read more on RBC:
https://www.rbc.ru/crypto/news/649e87539a79471e633478a1?

Oh indeed this is not a brilliant move...


Yes, I'm not at all surprised that it works. It's like those who claim that mining with 4G isn't efficient. In one of my mining places, I've been using an old smartphone for years and I share a connection to a laptop, then a small bash script to make an ethernet bridge to a ethernet switch. It works perfectly and with good ping times, but you'll always find people coming to explain that it's not possible to mine from a 4G hotspot.

Mining isn't very data-intensive, and there are some long-standing legends about it.

Yes, cold places are great for mining and data centers, cooling costs a lot of money to build as well as to run.


You would be amazed by how stupid mining pools are, a few years ago, the 3 largest pools revealed the geographical locations of miners to Cambridge University, a stupid move that was very unnecessary.

If we are talking about legally extracting such info from a pool, it would depend on where the pool is located,  a Chinese mining pool doesn't have to answer to the U.S. government, and a U.S mining pool doesn't have to answer to China, besides, it costs next to nothing to mask your IP address, just run a VPN on your router and you are good to go, don't listen to anyone who tells you that it won't work -- it works perfectly, I have been doing that for a very long time without any issue, just don't connect to a VPN that is on the other side of the globe and the pool needs to be close to that VPN location.

For example, if you are in central Africa, connecting to a VPN in Japan and a mining pool in Europe = problems, if you are in the same location, connecting to a VPN in Europe with a pool in Europe = no problems.

I don't think that's possible. Maybe the pool operators could, based on the IP addresses of the workers in their pool, assuming that the miners you're interested in don't change their IP. But chances are they've got other things to do and won't be fighting against their own interests / miners. Hashrate is hashrate for them; and they're right about that.

But what would be the point? Isn't the point that everyone should be able to mine BTC according to their own choices? Is the aim of a free-market and decentralized currency to file users of the currency in question according to their nationality? I don't think so.

I think we're a long way from seeing mass "illegal" coins linked to mining in Russia, I think what the authorities are most interested in are those coming out of certain mixers, for example.

Is there a way to track russian miners payout? I wonder if this will create a larger sum off "illegal" tokens?

It's crazy how Ukraine is almost ruined and Russia is still standing, that's why they have the time to keep running their mining asylum,  seriously I am not happen about what's going on between this two countries, no hate, just talking facts.

I believe China would be the second on the list if I'm a not wrong? Anyways it doesn't matter who is topping the list, all that matters is Bitcoin becoming a goal for many more countries, maybe in future every single countries will accept Bitcoin finally.

Hoping you are okay and things calm down a bit.

I do not agree that Russia will take over bitcoin mining in order to grow to the level of China before the flight of miners. Such investments may not pay off, and the state does not need it if you read the latest news about Russia. And China will sell asics to all customers.

Up to some extent, you are right, in terms of democratic societies, where market rules may work. But when it comes to totalitarian states, a simple mindset stops market rules, if they want. If they decide "let's forbiden our ASIC manufacturers to sell equipment to ocident. We will olny make business with Asia and Russia. We don't want to sell our tech to USA and EUA". I believe if they want, they can do it! And Asia and Russia have good conditions to mine, so it could work! I'm just conjecturing of course, but it's a possible vision!

First of all, Russia and China are not friends. Countries with ambition to control the world like USA, China, Russia, UK, Germany, can't really befriend with each-other. Collaboration is possible and I agree with you on that but not on friendship. And what I am saying is that why will China sell equipment in discount to Russia when the USA is there to pay more? And Chinese economy is very much linked with the USA, Europe, Japan, South Korea. And bitcoin mining is not a strategic industry for Chinese government, it's a commercial business in that country and in commercial business, the one who pays the most, gets the product. Russians can't outweigh American bidders and Chinese businessmen aren't going to reduce profit to benefit Russians.

So, all I say is that if things go like there is a huge buying competition between the Russia and America, Americans will outweigh Russians and Chinese businessmen will prefer more profit. In bad case, if China says that it's a strategic business and we will only sell miners to Russians and if Americans think that it's also a strategic business, then they'll invest in the development of Asic miners and America has resources to succeed in it but that won't happen, believe me, otherwise they'll turn quantum computers toward bitcoin mining process.

And in the worst case, if China and Russia takeover Bitcoin mining business, there is always a solution, just abandon it and move on different coin, or make a fork and move from PoW to PoS. I think we talk about things that are unlikely to happen and things don't work the way you post. With that logic, we can say that what if China stops iPhone production and produce Russian smartphones, blabla.

How is China different in terms of corruption, being led by mafias and powerful people, about control, oppression and every other properties of totaitarian states?
And when I discuss about those two, I'm referring about energy sources and mining equipment. If Russia can buy cheaper from China, just because of their "friendship", why would they buy from USA? And if they can be a strong alliance, why would they want to do business more with someone that are not their friends at any level right now?
And the mining business has nothing to do with unskilled jobs, btw. It's exactly the opposite



Yes, we know. Or at least I know. And I even know that they went back and forth regarding regulations. We are just discussing hipothetically!

China owned enough hashrate for a 51% attack, but it didn't happen. It is difficult to run a mining business in Russia and the new mining law in 2024 will add to the problems because many miners did not pay all taxes, but only a small part. If the law requires declaring the amount of equipment as in the United States, then in Russia a lot of equipment is imported without declaring it at customs.

Russia has a cheap energy, okay, but Russia is a cheap buyer too. The USA can bid more than Russians, in absolutely everything. China is a country that manufactures goods and exports, how will they benefit with Russian market? America and Europe is by far the most profitable market for them.

You ignore the fact that Russia is a very corrupt country and is owned by a group of KGB agents. Russia is not a country with freedom of business. Also, you have to keep in mind that Western countries are far developed with far better quality of life than Russia, China or BRICS countries overall. You will not see expats from G7 countries to BRICS countries but the opposite happens very often, people from BRICS countries pay a lot of money to cross the Mexico-America border or to move in Europe and do unskilled jobs.

That's the point. Russia has the power to produce energy. What else you need cheap? If you have cheap energy and you have a partner to sell you miners, that's the cherry on top of the cake!
And about friendships, I wouldn't bet my life on what you say of who pays better is your friend! But ok, that's also a point!
And the 51% attack, that's also the point. If you let USA to take all the mining power, then it's way easier to make a 51% attack to take place. If you have some competition, aka in Russia, then, mining is a bit more decentralised! That's my view!

Can Russians pay more than Americans? Or Europeans? Compare GDP, compare their economies. Who is China's biggest trading partner? Americans or Russians? What do you call a friendship? It's a business and in business, the one that pays the most is your friend.
Also, there is just no way to make that 60% livable and I bet 1% of that 60% will be more than enough to place tons of miners but if there is an 51% network attack, things will not develop in a way they want. What if western people abandon Bitcoin in case Russia takes it over?

Unlivable? Maybe. But machines doesn't need to "live". They need to work. And even so, when the market demands, people adapt! Never underestimate the power of Bitcoin. If the county embrace mining, they will find ways to make those 60% livable. Or at least in a way they can manage farms!
And don't forget that China is friends with Russia. China holds the monopoly of ASIC manufacturers. See:
https://www.asicminervalue.com/manufacturers

Are you dead serious? 60% of their land area is unlivable, can Siberia be considered as an advantage? Russia is 8th with oil reserves, the USA is 11th but the USA holds the world's largest recoverable oil reserve. I don't speak about other advantages that the USA has over Russia, including the economy, universities, businesses like Walmart, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Ford, etc.

“In terms of global mining capacity, Russia, according to expert estimates, ranks second in the world with a hashrate share of 13-15%, second only to the United States,” Ogienko from BitRiver quotes figures. — Today in our country 1.3-1.7 GW of electric power is consumed for mining, 60% of the market belongs to industrial data centers from 10 MW, and 40% is distributed in the retail segment. About 300,000 mining devices operate in Russian specialized data centers.”
https://www.rbc.ru/crypto/news/6486f59f9a7947490d1c7b54

The war does not interfere with mining, because China is close. Import of equipment from Kazakhstan without taxes.
In Russia, a law on mining is to be passed this year, which will not allow mining where miners are currently working.
And a 13-15% tax on profits may seem like a lot.

If not the war Russia would have been the first with a very big margin to other countries. Russians are bitcoin enthusiast. And I still believe that after the war and when Russia settle down, they would still take the first position on mining on bitcoin and the uses of it. For Russia to take the second position in the midst of the war means they are very much interesting on the technology. And they are ready to adopt it and use it.

Russia can produce a lot of electricity and the country does not need so much.
Russia sells a lot of electricity to other countries, but the state does not want to develop mining in its territories.
I don't know about mining projects with state participation, and most likely all miners are private companies.

This a good development for Russia, with the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine one may think that they (Russia) ain't putting much energy in other areas of their country but just on the war, and hopefully when the world comes to an end of which it surely will and Russia may possibly overtake the USA in their position as number one in the world in crypto mining. And this competition could promote some level of decentralization in hash rate in the policies attached by the different countries.

Russian Miners Mint Crypto Worth $700 Million a Year, Mining Bill Postponed
"Russian Crypto Miners Produce Coins for up to 60 Billion Rubles in 2022
Miners operating in Russia have minted cryptocurrencies for an estimated 50 – 60 billion rubles ($620 million – $740 million) last year, the Director of the Skolkovo Fintech Hub Pavel Novikov announced, quoted by the Prime business news agency."

I do not know what data these statements are based on, but there are a lot of miners in Russia and they do not leave for other countries.

These are the two world powers in technology. Russia is really trying in the cryptocurrency ecosystem inspired of the war they are still taking second position of the bitcoin mining field. Russia would have taken the first position if not the war  . I think Russia has the number me solar bitcoin mining company in the world. Russia has the power to mine bitcoin very well, I'm even suspecting that after the war Russia is going to take the first position in mining even they have not adopted bitcoin has their legal tender in the country. And when Russia will adopt bitcoin as their legal tender, the present narrative of bitcoin will change to good.

 

I personally am not very surprised. But the article didn't mention why, or what caused the surge in hashing power within their region. I'm not blowing my own trumpet or anything like that, but I posted about the possibility that Russian Oil could be used as an energy source to mine Bitcoin as a means to go around sanctions and "export" their Crude Oil.

Surging hashing power also coincides with the Russian Finance Minister's statement made last month.

https://tass.com/economy/1608715

Bitcoin will probably have its own use in their "unrestricted" cross-border digital payments protocol. 🤔

"The law is Taiga, the Prosecutor is the Bear."
There are no police in Taiga. The bandits can take the ASICs and no one else will find them.
And if you bought ASICs that arrived in the country unofficially, then the police will have requests for you. I know that when buying large quantities of equipment, the seller is obliged to transfer to the buyer data on the passage of customs control.

The cost of taxes is 15-20% of the amount of equipment imported into Russia, and since the equipment is expensive, such a discount is very good. In America, it is known how many ASICs each miner has, but in Russia there is no such information.
If you are interested in the ASIC route to Russia, then a lot of equipment comes from Kazakhstan, and there are no customs duties at the border. Some of the equipment is smuggling or falsification of customs documents.

Or they will want to pivot to LTC/Doge with the aid of Musk.

I only wish I could  be 30-35 to see how this sha-256 vs scrypt ends up. Around 2060 (I would be 103)

if I were 30 I would be 67 in 2060.

So far BTC has not solved scaling and fees for the lower block rewards that are around the corner.

2048  blocks are 0.04882812
2052 blocks are  0.02441406
2056 blocks are  0.01220703
2060 blocks are  0.00610351 >>> this makes me think BTC will be a bridge coin to something else


Everything I come up with for btc by 2060 is pretty much a fail for worldwide currency.  You would need a perfectly done LN node for things to work .

Scrypt is far easier to do  this due to 2 LTC block and 10 DOGE blocks every 10 minutes.

Obviously Many moves will be done with east vs west or left vs right or communist vs capitalist as the 'players' making moves.

China dominated BTC mining for years, I am not talking about second largest or 20% or anything like that, it was 60% at best, at one point, Chinese mining pools had pretty close to 90% of the total hashrate, with more than half of that hashrate physically located in China, that is worse than Russia becoming the second largest BTC miner as far as the west is concerned.

Also, I don't think the West (mainly the U.S since that's what the west is all about if we are going to be somehow honest) are that stupid, they know and see the future of BTC, and they probably don't want to be left behind while other countries move closer to adopting BTC.

Great, now that Russia has become the second largest crypto miner in the world, the western countries and their allies will want to push down even harder on crypto with more regulational nonsense and sanctions. Not that they did not want to do exactly that in the first place, but now they have found an excellent reason to stay on their course with an even higher rate of speed. All the anti-coiners are going to have a field day with this news. I think that Kasachstan and countries around Russia should put in some more effort to take the top places. They have cheap electricity, so nothing is stopping them.

Makes you wonder if some of the gear is actually being imported at all. You can't mine in China, but you can in Russia. Someone in China 'sells' gear to Russia, gets it close to the border and it just never leaves China but sits mining in an empty warehouse or factory in China.

Probably not important since as of now there really does not seem to be much physical proof of the gear mining or even existing.

No pool or service that is located in a country that has sanctions against Russia at the moment would want to deal with this so it would have to be at a pool that does not care.

-Dave

May I ask why do you consider the taiga as a dangerous area regarding to BTC mining ? I mean, why would it be more dangerous than Moscow area ?


Thanks for the link. It is very interesting.

I've just read the article, I am not Russian and I speak very bad Russian. If I understood correctly, they consider ASICs imports as "grey" because they declare a lower value than the real value of the equipment? They declare the ASICs as used when they receive them new, is that right? Knowing the mining equipment manufacturers, this would only be a "half" lie  I have the feeling that no ASIC is really new when sold, I always receive them with traces of use even when ordered as brand new (but I have only made deals with Bitmain almost, considering their reputation I am not surprised)
For my part this has always been the case, I once received a pallet of S19s that my Shenzhen seller had declared as being totally something else, luckily customs didn't paid attention to that.

More than 60% of mining equipment entering Russia is imported using "gray" schemes, according to Intelion Data Systems. Because of this, according to various experts, the state receives less in the form of tax revenues from 5 to 10 billion rubles. in year.

This seems to be true, there may be problems with the guarantee in official services in Russia, and ASICs will have to be taken to China. But if the guarantee ends, then the services repair any asics for money.

In the taiga, electricity is 1.5-2 cents, but it is dangerous there; in Moscow, electricity is 5-6 cents, but it is safe there. I do not know what the oligarchs are doing in Russia, but if they own power plants, then the cost of electricity for them in the taiga is 0.1-0.2 cents. If you install a mining plant nearby, then even the oldest ASICs will mine profitably.

Russia's rising position as the second-largest crypto miner is a testament to the growing popularity and profitability of cryptocurrency mining.

YEAH those high power transmission line are very costly to build and lose energy for every 10 miles a lot of power is lost.

---

a 380 to 400 kv line vs a 745kv line from wiki:

'For example, a 100 mi (160 km) span at 765 kV carrying 1000 MW of power can have losses of 0.5% to 1.1%.
A 345 kV line carrying the same load across the same distance has losses of 4.2%'.

from wiki

---

 5.0 mega watts at best to  42.0 megawatts at worst is a lot of power to lose  for a short transport
(100 miles is short for Russia)

I don't want to sound like I understand how Russia "works" because I don't! but I do get your points and agree with them, I have a Russian friend who moved his mining operation to another country and he did mention that it was pretty unsafe to mine in Russia for many reasons including the ones you mentioned, so it does make sense that it's pretty difficult for the regular people to deploy large operations there, but what about state-level operations or some Russian oligarchs who know how to protect their mining farms? do you think such people can/would invest in BTC mining?

I can use US pools, but I don't see the need for it when many other pools don't pose a problem for their miners. This will require additional software configuration to avoid blocking on American pools. It is only on the news that pools are refusing Russian miners.

Also, has there been any 'outside' conformation of this?
We all know mining is somewhat anonymous but that much hash, once again if it's modern equipment, would have to be pointed somewhere.

All the US / EU pools would cut them off in a moment if they knew that it was them so they would have to be careful where they mined.

Once again, assuming it's somewhat modern SHA equipment.

-Dave

It is difficult for a person not from Russia to understand what the phrase means: "The law is Taiga, the Prosecutor is the Bear." In the middle of nowhere there are other laws and there will be many hunters in the taiga for your equipment.
It is not a fact that installation of equipment In the middle of nowhere will be more profitable for you. Local officials, bandits will come to you in delegations and demand a share of the business. And those who do not share, usually the equipment disappears.

Ok but there is a huge difference between consumption and actual supply, of course in places where it's cold most of the time and the main source for heating is gas, the need for power is pretty limited which is pretty much the case for the majority of Russia,  but that doesn't mean the high-voltage grid is limited to that, there could be a power station able to deliver 5000MW but only 1000MW of that is used, the available 4000MW can be somehow easily deployed for mining operations.

The thing about mining is that it cares less about the location, usually, the issue with electricity is transmission rather than generation, to transfer that 4000MW to the nearest city it's going to be a very expensive job, but it's easier to bring your mining containers next to the source of power in the middle of nowhere.

Now this begs the question, is Russia limited to power generation or just transmission?

If you are interested in the age of the miners, then this is not 16-25 years old.
Basically, I see people from 30 to 50 years old and older, and it's not getting any younger. These are businessmen who have experience in IT, engineers and people with a technical mindset. Investing in mining requires a lot of initial capital, and young people do not have such opportunities. One small container for 100 ASICs is at least 20 million rubles or $240,000. This is big money in Russia.

Well, the population of Russia allows it to come in second place, a large proportion of young people are engaged in the crypt.

The consumption of a large city in Russia up to a million people is about 1000 megawatts, and the shortage of electricity is compensated from supplies from the Unified Energy System. Thanks to this idea of engineers from the Soviet Union in Russia, there are no problems with electricity in large cities that are connected in this system.
But it is very very difficult to connect 10MW now. Factories consume 2-3 MW, and it is difficult to agree on such possibilities.
Usually miners use 0.4MW transformers that are used for private summer cottages, camp sites and similar objects.

Supply of electricity is the most challenging part for large mining operations, the rest of the infrastructure is only a matter of money, say you have a 10MW transformer plugged into the grid ready to deliver power, you can just buy a few plug-and-play containers and get those 10MW up and running in no time, in fact, even the transformer itself can be deployed pretty easily, it gets harder if you need to bring in those overhead power lines of 400KV or 200KV  to the location.

Cheap electricity in Russia is only in a few regions of Siberia, but the problem is that the infrastructure for mining is not developed. This business is developed by old enthusiasts. It's good that this business is not taxed, or the miners have a chance to pay the minimum tax, because there are no control possibilities.

This is all that matters in my point of view, hashrate geographical centralization is the worst type of centralization we can have, most people complain about pools centralization which is pretty much harmless to a certain degree, but having all the hashrate in the same territory, subject to same laws of the same government is pretty risky, so any hashrate rising anywhere except for the U.S as of now is good, be it Russia, Japan, Pakistan or some aliens on the moon, we shouldn't care less.

I don't know if this is good or bad. I mean, it can be both. Russia has quite a few advantages over USA for instaance. They have land area, they have huge cold area, they have good realtions with China which is the manufacturer of one of the most common miners (Bitmain), they have quite a few sources of energy. So this seems to me quite a few pros to the country to invest more in mining. Ig they can't export the energy they produce, they can use it to mine. They don't even have to bitch or "negociate" with western countries to "please buy our energy so that we can keep funding this war"!!!

On the other hand, it may be good as a way of taking away the monopoly of the USA in mining! A bit more decentralised!

Delayed by the war no doubt. But the situation may change at any moment. They were clearly aiming to put a leash to all mining operations before the conflict. Kazakhstan was rising after the China ban, until the State started imposing restrictions, people protested and Russia sent troops to end the protests...

Cheaper is not always better. My country is less than half a cent (0.004) but so insecure you just can't risk investing anything as people lose their assets left and right from State intervention or criminality (or both). There was a certain hosting trying to bring investors, just pay 4 cents (so they net 10x) but guess what. State imprisoned the guy in charge of the institution in charge of regulating "crypto currencies". All mining was ordered to stop, at least half a year the investigations may take. That institution appears to be dismantled, the lower ranking officials fired, so who knows what new restrictions/institution they will come up with next (or outright ban).

Those who risked their money for the 4¢ hosting, now must face an unknown amount of downtime losses, and it can be worse, they may decide to confiscate the miners if they find that hosting was "too close" to the previous institution (and if you weren't "close", you would not be given the permits in the first place).

This is the hidden cost of high risk countries. Sure, Russia has more rich oligarchs, but even them may end up fleeing (remember how Telegram was created).

If you look at wholesale prices in the Irkutsk region, they are at least 2 times cheaper. There is a lot of old mining equipment in Russia, but when you buy it very cheaply in China and pay 3 cents for electricity and still do not pay taxes, then the miners make good money. The law on mining has not yet been adopted.

No wonder because according to https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/

Russia has cheap electricity around 0.06 per KwH and of course a good internet connection cold temperature and it seems regulation there allow to mine bitcoin with Crypto miners in Russia will have to declare earnings or face jail time. - https://beincrypto.com/russian-crypto-mining-bill-mandates-earnings-reports-face-jail-time/

Even if we only consider the gigawatts of energy, Russia is still far to be close to The USA (4 GW vs 1 GW)
Russia being under sanctions, almost no foreign company will deal with.

What about this rather, added with the higher taxes for miners, and the Ecology's terrorists...




1) Electricity's price
Like many countries, it is as a result of the war.
But it's something that will end sooner or later, and so it will return back to normal.

2) Higher taxes for miners, and the Ecology's terrorists
I'm refering to the paragraph below


Reality:
The United States is a resource-rich country with abundant renewable energy resources. The amount available is 100 times that of the nation’s annual electricity need.

Statistics:
In 2021, renewable energy sources accounted for about 12.4% of total U.S. primary energy consumption. Renewable energy sources accounted for about 19.8% of total utility-scale electricity generation.

And that was in 2021 (I haven't looked deep to get fresh data). In 2023, it's surely higher, since almost all countries are jumping in the renewable energy wagon, pushed by the terrorists of ecology...

Statistics about bitcoin mining:
According to the Bitcoin Mining Council's 2022 report, 59.5% of the total bitcoin mining global energy comes from renewable sources

So the taxes incrase has hardly any leverage. In exemple, Riot Blockchain use 100% renewable energy.
And the crypto mining companies are perhaps the first ones to accelerate the transition to a neutral carbon energy in their country. And if not, they just buy carbon offsets....

So at end, the mainly reason is the electricity's price, which as I said will come back.

Russia is really going all out with their mining efforts and they are outperforming many other nations in this regard. It is indeed peculiar to observe that they have overtaken Kazakhstan in terms of mining operations and are even competing with United States  to secure the top spot.

I must say that Russia still requires a significant amount of energy over 3 gigawatts to be precise to get close to the almost 4 gigawatts of energy put into mining by the United States.

Russia has the potential to reach top spot in the mining if they utilize their huge land mass properly by installing renewable energy systems, they can easily surpass other countries in mining operations by 2025.


I agree with you that power is not as important as hashrate in mining operations. Older mining equipment's are not energy efficient and can't produce the same hashrates as modern equipment's. The new generation miners are designed to use less energy while achieving higher hashrates.

It is also important to note that what if Russia is using the latest generation of mining equipment's? It can utilize its huge land mass by installing solar panels to add even more power to its operations. It is worth noting that China is favoring Russia and most of the mining tech is manufactured in China. By keeping that in mind I can say that Russia has upper hand in this regard and it could surpass United States in mining operations if things go in its favor.

Power does not matter vs hashrate.
If you are using 1 gigawat of power to mine with 3 generation old equipment it's meaningless. Someone with 1/4 the power could out mine them.

Hashrate and pool info (and I guess what they are mining) is what matters.
They could be burning all that power to mine ETC since they got all the ETH miners cheap.....

-Dave

Russia has become the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency mining country this year, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday, citing Bitriver, Russia’s largest bitcoin mining provider.

While the United States remains by far the world's largest crypto miner, boasting 3-4 gigawatts of mining capacity, Russia’s generating capacity reached 1 gigawatt in January-March 2023.

In taking second place for the first time, Russia took a spot previously occupied by Kazakhstan, which introduced restrictions on crypto mining activities in 2022 and now ranks ninth, Kommersant cited Bitriver as saying.