Kazakhstan crackdowns on Bitcoin Internet shutdown stifles' miners' hopes

Kazakhstan has plenty of coal mines and access to cheap and plentiful electricity, which is the main incentive for cryptocurrency miners to choose it, as electricity is the only variable cost of their business.
As the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan descended into chaos this week and the Internet shut down at the world's second-largest bitcoin mining hub, miners looking for a home with stable electricity were dealt another blow.
Bitcoin fell below $43,000 on Thursday for the first time since September.
Less than a year ago, China expelled all cryptocurrency miners, with many turning to neighboring Kazakhstan.
But months after the miners set up cryptocurrency mines in Kazakhstan, cryptocurrency miners are again in trouble as protests over rising fuel prices turn into the country's worst riots in decades.
After sacking the government and calling in Russian paratroopers to help contain the demonstrations, Kazakhstan's president Kasim-Chomart Tokayev ordered the country's telecoms providers to shut down Internet services.
The shutdown shut down about 15% of the global bitcoin mining industry, according to Kevin Chang of cryptocurrency firm Foundry. The company helped provide more than $400 million in mining equipment to North America.

Bitcoin price action (Al Jazeera)

Now in Kazakhstan, the Internet has been down for approximately 36 hours, public safety is at risk and friends and family are isolated, "NetBlocks wrote in a tweet on Friday.
These events illustrate two important facts about the bitcoin mining industry: First, the bitcoin network is so resilient that it can maintain its rhythm even when most miners accidentally disconnect.
Second, the U.S. could soon see an influx of new crypto miners who want to avoid future unrest.
The question now is whether the United States, which will overtake China in 2021 as the largest bitcoin mining center on earth, has room to absorb more "miners."

(Al Jazeera)

Bitcoin mining in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, which is close to China and a major energy producer, seemed a logical destination when China expelled all "bitcoin miners" in May 2021.
Mining is an energy-intensive computational process used to generate new cryptocurrencies and record all transactions.
Kazakhstan's large number of coal mines, low prices and plentiful supplies of energy are a major incentive for miners, and the kazakh government has a relaxed attitude to construction, which favors miners who need to build physical facilities in the short term.
Kazakhstan has the second-largest share of the global bitcoin mining market after the United States, accounting for 18.1 percent of all crypto mining operations, according to Cambridge Alternative Finance.
But the government isn't entirely excited about the booming cryptocurrency mining industry. For months, Kazakh lawmakers have introduced new rules to try to stop mining operations, such as a law that would impose an additional tax on crypto miners starting in 2022.
Experts expect the move to dramatically change the incentives of those looking to invest in Kazakhstan.