The Truth About the Russia Bitcoin Mining Ban

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Denis Rusinovich, a partner at the Cryptocurrency Mining Group, speaks to Colin about the particulars of the Russia bitcoin mining ban. News broke in December that Russia would be banning bitcoin mining in 10 regions, effective January 1, 2025 through March 15, 2031. Only the ban is not an all-out ban like the first wave of reporting would have us all believe. For today’s show, Rusinovich sets the record straight and gives us a rundown of the miners who are actually affected by the ban. 

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

03:09 Defining the "ban"

07:42 Legalizing mining

09:07 Identifying miners for regulation

10:22 The scope of Bitcoin mining in Russia

13:16 Subsidizing residential miners

15:50 Effect on global hashrate

17:09 Kazakhstan

22:59 Russia energy crisis?

25:54 Grid balancing

30:40 Oil & gas production areas

32:04 Chechnya

33:16 What regions have the most activity?

36:22 Miners vs hosting

37:42 Taxes

38:47 Where is investment capital coming from?

42:08 Hosted miners

43:17 Future of Russia mining

45:21 Wrap up

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!