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- Residents of Svaneti in Georgia were seen crowding at a church to take oath against mining of cryptocurrencies
- This comes as a consequence as major citizens moved to mining cryptocurrency from a tourism based structure of the Svaneti economy.
- The local electricity company Energy Pro threatened to increase tariffs as consumption rose to unsustainable levels, surging 237% in 2021.
While the craze of cryptocurrencies rages on to the world, many are hesitant towards mining of cryptos as it bears extreme high energy costs which in turn contributes to more electricity costs and pollution levels as major sources of energy are non renewable and includes emissions of high carbon levels.
The residents of Svaneti in Mestia hills are facing extreme power shortages as a significant portion of the population has turned towards mining of cryptocurrencies to earn their livelihood.
As a consequence to the power crisis faced in the hilly regions, many residents were seen taking the holy oath against mining of cryptocurrencies.
The economy of the Svaneti under the municipality of Mestia hills is run solemnly on the basis of tourism. According to the data from Microtrends, tourism has steadily grown every year since 2000 to 2019 in the Menstia region. However, when the pandemic hit, the tourism across the reign plummeted which led to residents moving into the crypto space and mine cryptos to earn their living.
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However, the same citizens are now being blamed for severely disrupting the power supply of the hilly region. A video from the local media shows that miners from Sputnik Georgia show, crowding at a church and taking an holy oath at St. George against mining of cryptocurrencies on Dec 30, 2021.
Mining cryptocurrencies is already an controversial topic in the west amid various international agencies citing climate change as the biggest threat that surrounds the world,
However, mining sparked concerns in Svaneti of Mestia when the local electricity company, Energo Pro warned against price hikes in a region where some of the parts receive free electricity, the same has also made the Mestia hills extremely desirable for new miners.
The municipality issued a statement which interpreted that mining of cryptocurrencies had disrupted the whole energy supply of the hills where it also mentioned that the region witnessed an 237% surge in electricity usage attributing most, to mining of cryptocurrencies.
The local company, Energo Pro on Jan 5 issued a statement that electricity consumption in the region had reached unsustainable levels where it was consuming 27 megawatts of power, which was 4 times more, the infrastructure could handle.
Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.
