In Brief:
- Russia to authorize use of wasted flare gas for bitcoin mining.
- Russia has yet to legislate cryptocurrency mining, as if now it is illegal and unregulated.
The Russian government is considering a request from oil and gas companies, seeking authorization to mine bitcoin using natural gas that would otherwise be wasted in drilling.
The Russian Central Bank, Ministry of Industry and Trade, and Ministry of Digital Development are discussing whether to authorize oil industry players to use wasted flare gas to power crypto mining data centers.
Associated petroleum gas is natural gas that lies on top of oil reserves. Because this gas is not profitable to extract or ship, oil drilling often burns it off in the process known as gas flaring, which produces the ever-present flames that accompany oil drilling. No energy is produced by those flares except greenhouse gases.
The process of redirecting gas from flaring to crypto mining does not eliminate emissions, but it at least gives open flames a purpose that would otherwise go to waste.
Russia has yet to legislate cryptocurrency mining as if now it is illegal and unregulated. Similarly, cryptocurrency, in general, has been waiting for legislation for several years.
As a result of recent expulsions of miners from China, Kazakhstan and Russia now occupy the second and third spots in the global hashrate standings, respectively after the US.
The wave puts new pressure on authorities to accept mining as a part of their operations.
