Cryptocurrencies

Authorities Seize Over 1,500 Crypto Mining Rigs in Dagestan Crackdown

15/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

Law enforcement and other authorities in Dagestan have closed down two illegal crypto farms, confiscating more than 1,500 mining machines. Government agencies in the republic, considered one of Russia’s capitals of underground coin minting, carry out regular raids against such facilities.

Cryptocurrency Miners in Dagestan Accused of ‘Illegal Entrepreneurship’

Officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan and the Federal Security Service have uncovered a large crypto mining farm in the Russian republic’s capital city, Makhachkala, Tass news agency reported, quoting the ministry. The law enforcement agents have seized 1,476 devices producing digital currencies, a press release detailed.

The department added that the owners of the illegal facility have been also providing services to other miners including installing mining rigs, connecting them to the power grid and providing security. Experts are now working to establish the market value of the confiscated mining equipment as well as the amount of consumed electricity.

The law enforcement officials who raided the crypto farm further noted they are collecting evidence to charge the operators under Part 2 of Art. 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, “Illegal entrepreneurship,” and part 2 of Art. 165, “Causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust.”

In the past few years, Dagestan has become a hotspot for illegal and home crypto mining, along with Russian regions such as Krasnoyarsk Krai and Irkutsk Oblast that have maintained low electricity rates. As a result, they have suffered blackouts due to breakdowns, especially in residential areas where the electrical networks are not designed to handle the excessive loads.

In another case, the local power grid operator and distributor, Rosseti Severniy Kavkaz, recently found 95 rigs minting cryptocurrency at a facility of the republic’s water supply utility, Мahachkala Vodokanal. The hardware was installed in a metal container at the Vuzovskoe Ozero pumping station.

The crypto farm had a power capacity of 260 kW and its illegal electricity consumption exceeded 4.5 million kWh, worth more than 26 million rubles (over $400,000). According to an announcement by Rosseti, the farm was set up by a resident of the Dagestan capital who worked in collusion with employees of the water utility.

Authorities in Moscow have been taking steps to regulate crypto mining as a business activity for which Russia has certain advantages like its cheap energy sources and favorable climatic conditions. Lawmakers at the State Duma are currently reviewing a new bill tailored to achieve that. Meanwhile, in an effort to curb mining with household electricity, the Russian anti-monopoly agency has suggested introducing higher electricity rates for those mining at their homes.

Do you expect authorities in Russia’s Dagestan to continue to crack down on cryptocurrency miners? Tell us in the comments section below.

Number of Busted Illegal Crypto Mining Farms in Iran Nears 7,000

14/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

Authorities in Iran have shut down close to 7,000 unauthorized facilities for cryptocurrency mining in the past two years, local media revealed. According to a report, most of the illegal bitcoin farms were concentrated in five provinces of the Islamic Republic, including Tehran.

Iran Continues Crackdown on Unlicensed Cryptocurrency Mining

Iranian officials have unplugged and disbanded a total of 6,914 crypto farms operating without a mining license. This since authorities started clamping down on the illegal extraction of cryptocurrencies in 2020, the English-language Iranian daily Financial Tribune unveiled this week.

The newspaper quotes a report by Iribnews.ir, which details that these facilities have burned some 645 megawatts of electrical power while minting digital currencies without permission. It has been estimated this equals the annual consumption of three major regions — North Khorasan, South Khorasan, and Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari.

Cryptocurrency mining has been a legal industrial activity in Iran for almost three years now, after the government approved regulations for the sector in July 2019. A licensing regime was introduced and companies that want to get involved in the business need to obtain authorization from the Ministry of Industries.

However, as registered crypto miners are required to buy the electrical energy they need at higher, export rates, many Iranian miners have opted to remain under the radar. They usually connect illegally to the grid and use subsidized electricity to power their mining hardware.

Iran’s Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (Tavanir) has been going after underground crypto farms, closing them down and confiscating hundreds of thousands of mining machines. If identified, their operators can be fined for damages inflicted on the distribution network and a report revealed last month that the government is preparing to increase the penalties.

The country’s electricity shortages last summer were partially blamed on increased electricity usage for coin minting and even licensed miners were asked to shut down their equipment. They were allowed to resume operations in September but then again ordered to suspend activities in the face of a growing power deficit in the cold winter months.

Do you expect Iran to continue to crack down on unlicensed crypto mining? Tell us in the comments section below.

Proposed Crypto Mining Ban in Norway Fails to Gain Support in Parliament

13/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

A push to prohibit the energy-intensive proof-of-work mining of cryptocurrencies in Norway has been rejected by the majority of lawmakers. The ban had been suggested by the far-left Red Party which also didn’t win backing to raise an electricity tax for crypto miners.

Norway Will Not Ban Bitcoin Mining

The parliament of Norway has considered and voted against a draft law banning the minting of digital currencies based on the proof-of-work concept. The legislation, which was proposed by the communist Red Party in March, was supported only by two other leftist parties, SV (the Socialist Left Party) and MdG (the Green Party).

“We are obviously disappointed with the majority here,” Red lawmaker Sofie Marhaug told the E24 news portal. She added that the Norwegian society must determine its priorities regarding power usage. Her party says bitcoin mining is extremely energy-intensive and insists on putting an emphasis on the needs of other industries and climate change goals.

However, as Marhaug pointed out, the majority in the Storting, Norway’s legislature, wants to prioritize the market, and “give the bill to Norwegian electricity consumers.”

The Red also failed to win support for a proposal to revise the electricity surcharge for mining data centers, accusing the Labor Party (Ap) and Centre Party (Sp) of breaching a pre-election promise. The two parties had announced they would seek a full electricity fee for mining farms.

While households, many businesses, and the public sector currently pay 0.15 kroner (approx. $0.02) per kilowatt-hour of spent electricity, the industry, including data centers, enjoys a reduced levy of just 0.0055 kroner per kWh.

In February, the Norwegian government said it will try to avoid imposing a crypto ban, but made it clear it was considering various measures regarding the electricity consumption in the sector. In November, Norway admitted it’s mulling over ways to limit the environmental impact of bitcoin minting and may support a Swedish proposal for a European ban on proof-of-work mining.

“In a time of energy scarcity and challenges with cutting emissions, it is particularly harmful that power is wasted only to enrich individuals rather than being used for socially beneficial purposes,” the three leftist parties said. However, the parliamentary majority has objected to the politically motivated discrimination against mining data centers.

What do you think about the debate in Norway on the future of the crypto mining industry? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.

Independent Russian News Site Meduza Raises Over $200,000 in Crypto

11/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

Pressure from the Kremlin and sanctions from the West have forced Russian news outlet Meduza to increasingly rely on cryptocurrency donations to fund its independent journalism. As the restrictions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine have prevented its Russian readers from contributing in fiat currency, the Riga-based website now accepts several digital coins.

Meduza Pulls Journalists out of Russia, Seeks Crypto Support

The war in Ukraine has affected Russian-language news site Meduza in more than one way, a report by Bloomberg reveals. Soon after the Kremlin launched its “special military operation,” President Vladimir Putin’s administration clamped down on independent reporting on the conflict and the media outlet has sought help to resettle its 25 journalists in Latvia.

The small Baltic nation of around 2 million, which has a large Russian speaking minority, has become a hub for exiled Russian media. Western sanctions, however, do not allow Meduza’s 30,000 Russian readers who supported it before the conflict to send funds through Stripe, after the payment processor suspended services in the Russian Federation to comply with the penalties.

The war and the sanctions have forced Meduza to turn to its international audience and ask for financial help in U.S. dollars, euros, or cryptocurrency. It now accepts card payments, bank wires, Paypal transfers, and multiple coins including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), the stablecoin tether (USDT), and the privacy-oriented monero (XMR). The report notes that the provided BTC and ETH wallets have already accumulated about $230,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

Commenting on the situation, the news portal’s editor-in-chief Ivan Kolpakov pointed out that Meduza is currently raising only around half of what it needs to develop. While declining to reveal the total amount of donations, he noted that the website is soliciting crypto and relying entirely on money from foreigners for the first time and stated:

We couldn’t predict that the sanctions of Western governments will come first and destroy our crowdfunding.

Independent Russian media outlets have faced unprecedented pressure from authorities in Moscow and as a result some have shut down, while others have been blocked by the Russian state. The Novaya Gazeta newspaper suspended publication in March after receiving warnings about its coverage, and the Ekho Moskvy radio station had its FM frequency handed over to the state-run Sputnik.

Meduza, which was founded in the Latvian capital after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, during another media crackdown, was labeled last year a “foreign agent” by the Russian government. The designation, which targets Russian media receiving funding from abroad, had already hurt its advertising revenue before the new sanctions effectively ended Russian donations.

Do you expect other independent Russian publications to turn to cryptocurrency donations to fund their reporting? Tell us in the comments section below.

Meme Token Carnage — DOGE, SHIB Prices Sink Lower, Dogecoin Down 82% Since Last Year

08/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

Today’s top meme coins have lost 4.8% in value against the U.S. dollar, as the crypto market carnage has wreaked havoc across the entire digital currency economy. While dogecoin had a phenomenal year in 2021, over the past 12 months, dogecoin lost 82.8% against the USD.

DOGE Tapped an All-Time High a Year Ago Today, Meme Coin Value Is Down 82% Since That Point

Meme coin assets are down this week following the rest of the crypto economy’s downward spiral. Statistics show that dogecoin (DOGE) has shed 14% in value during the past month and 30 day stats show shiba inu (SHIB) is down 24%.

In the last day alone, the $28.3 billion worth of meme tokens lost 4.8% in value. DOGE lost 1.7% over the last seven days and this week SHIB has dropped by 6.8%. DOGE is also down 82.8% from the crypto asset’s all-time high on May 8, 2021, which was exactly a year ago today.

At that time, DOGE reached an ATH of around $0.731 per unit. Six months ago, SHIB tapped an ATH at $0.00008616 per unit and today it’s down 78% since that price point. Both DOGE and SHIB make up most of the $28.3 billion meme token market capitalization by representing 95% with a combined market valuation of around $26.9 billion today.

Google Trends Data Shows Interest in Dogecoin and SHIB Is Low

While most of the meme coin economy has shed significant value in recent times, a relatively unknown meme token called litedoge (LDOGE) has gained 400% this week. Poodl token (POODL) is up 34.2% and dogefi (DOGEFI) is up 27.3% during the past seven days. However, jejudoge (JEJUDOGE) has lost 44.6% this week, lets go brandon (LETSGO) is down 43.3%, and shiba fantom has shed 28.9% in value against the USD.

Meme tokens were all the rage last year, but interest seems to be dwindling fast. After hitting a Google Trends (GT) score of 100 last May, this year during the same weekly timeframe, the search phrase “dogecoin” has scored a three. SHIB hit a 100 in October and GT data shows the search term “SHIB” has scored a four this week, according to worldwide statistics.

What do you think about the meme coin market carnage and the lack of interest in SHIB and dogecoin these days? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.