Incredibly increased consumption and, as a result, the demand for electricity, “flowing” like a pipe, forces industry experts to find the cause of this phenomenon and study the structure of needs. It turned out that in Europe and America, and more specifically in Canada, the main customers that consume a lot of energy are the crypto farms. Worse still, they are outlaws hiding in the shadows of legitimate network customers. Felicity Bredstock, an expert, writes about this in an article for the OilPrice resource.
If the development of industry and households is still manageable, predictable and keeps pace with the growth of fuel and energy production, then the unchecked cryptomining boom is burning through all the extra production capacity, at the both fossil fuels and renewable sources. In this sense, even shortages and a long cold winter have ceased to be a factor provoking an energy crisis in an era of a sharp increase in the production of raw materials and energy (which is still lacking).
For example, British Columbia just introduced an 18-month moratorium on connecting new cryptocurrency mining sites to the power grid, following which more than twenty new projects were frozen. Once commissioned, they would consume the same amount of energy as 570,000 homes. This is an unthinkable and parasitic attitude towards the general electricity distribution network, with millions of people suffering because of the greed of a few contractors.
Not only the supply and security of the system are at stake, but also the energy transition as a whole. Any network that crypto mining connects to immediately succumbs to the pressure and begins to suffer from a shortage. In Europe, so-called farms consume gas, oil and heating oil, because the EU energy system still only slightly involves renewable energy sources in production. In the US and Canada, the problem has gone deeper – crypto farms consume everything produced by green energy, then what is generated from gas, coal and fuel oil.
Western countries are gradually beginning to realize the magnitude of the problem and the harm caused by the uncontrolled growth of the industry. Many states are developing plans to limit harmful activities, citing the sad experience of Canada and some European countries. It is proposed to introduce strict regulation of the production of electronic money, as well as to impose a 30% tax on the process, the costs of which will be used for environmental purposes.
