The energy crisis in Kazakhstan continues and with it the impact on Bitcoin (BTC) mining. The electric operator of the Asian country ordered to cut the service to the farms that are in the country until the end of the month and today it was learned that a massive blackout left that nation and two others in the dark, which are supplied from the same network.
Bekhzan Mukatov, who is the managing director of the Kazakhstan Power Grid Operating Company (KEGOC), said in a memorandum that the planned electricity supply for people engaged in digital mining “is completely canceled from January 24 to midnight on January 31.”
The reason for the restriction is a «tense situation» with the maintenance and balance of electricity in Kazakhstanalthough there are no further details.
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The manager highlights that when the situation improves, which implies a greater balance and power over the volumes of consumption allowed, restrictions will be lifted. This, prior decision of the operator, who will communicate it “through the operational channels”.
A real tense situation
At the time of the electrical restriction for Bitcoin miners, a massive blackout affected Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The three countries located in Asia -central and electrically interconnected-, It was dark at noon today.
Although the service has already been restored, it became known that the Uzbek power grid, which is connected to the Unified Power Grid, “was damaged by an accident that triggered sudden changes in voltage and frequency on 530 lines from Kazakhstan,” said the Uzbekistan Minister of Energy.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Ministry of Energy of Kyrgyzstan told AFP that the cut was due to an accident “which affected the regional energy network”.
The Kazakh operator, for its part, reported on their website that when it was 11:59 in the morning (local time), a “major emergency imbalance in the electrical system of Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan) caused a voltage surge in the power transmission line.”
This derived in the disconnection of the Northeast-South line of Kazakhstan, cutting off power supply “to a significant portion of consumers in the south of the country.” The amount of load shedding is approximately 1,500 MW, they reported.
Minimal impact on Bitcoin hash rate
As has already been said, Kazakhstan is the second country in the world that concentrates the highest hash rate (hashrate), which is the processing power of the Bitcoin network. In total, 18% of the world’s supply is concentrated in that country.
Therefore, when the miners are disconnected, the hashrate of the network is affected. Although it is minimal, as was demonstrated a few days ago, when as a result of protests, the electricity service was interrupted and with it, the operation of the miners, which caused a slight drop in the hash rate.
But, after gradually reconnecting, the indicator rose again, until reaching the same levels as before the interruption by the Kazakh state. Even the hashrate marked a new historical maximum on January 13, of 215.28 exahashes per second (EH/s), according to figures from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode.
This time around, the hashrate has dropped to 183 EH/s, according to the mining firm brains, which measures the status of the Bitcoin network in real time. Although it represents a drop of -15% compared to its ATH, the mining capacity continues to effectively secure the decentralized BTC protocol.
Although it is true that Kazakhstan is a reference in mining, the new devices that have been launched for sale this year by companies such as Bitmain have taken part in the growth of the indicator. What’s more, the strong presence of miners in the United States and Latin America has also played an important role in processing the network.
