A Russian company stated on Monday, 20th August, that it will be opening the country’s largest cryptocurrency mining operation out of a former Soviet fertiliser laboratory. The timing of this news being released is of interest as Russian authorities are now interested in regulating the rapidly expanding cryptocurrency market.
The co-founder of the Kriptoyunivers centre, Alexei Korolyov, stated about the operation “this is the largest and so far the only farm in Russia that offers the ‘full cycle’ – not just producing cryptocurrency but also offering services to those who do the mining.”
These cryptocurrencies that are generated via mining are not dependant on any central banking institution and consume a great deal of energy resources to operate effectively.
The mining operation based out of northern Russia will be mainly mining Bitcoins, which is a widely known and recognised cryptocurrency, along with alt-coins such as litecoins. The former soviet fertiliser laboratory expands across 44,000 sq. feet in Kirishi, which is located 180km southeast of Saint Petersburg. The site had remained unoccupied for over twenty years and required an investment of over 7.4million USD (500 million roubles) to get the site operational.
Russia is currently running behind China and the United States in third place when it comes to nations that are producing cryptocurrencies by mining, according to a study published in 2015 by Ernst & Young. The Russian Parliament is currently in the process of enacting a law which authorises the production of cryptocurrencies but stops them to be exchanged for roubles.
The claim put forth by Kriptoyunivers of their mining operation being the largest in Russia cannot be verified as a majority of the mining operations being run at the moment are conducted in secrecy and thus their actual output value and income generated from said mining can’t be effectively quantified.
