Bitcoin mining has been a big concern for countries across the globe due to varied reasons like high rate of power consumption, exploitation of tax benefits, increasing illegal mining, etc. Paraguay has recently commented on the issue of illegal mining in the country.
According to the National Power Administration, the increasing Bitcoin mining in the country might affect the stability of the national power system in the country. The problem of illegal mining is also causing troubles to the system as the illegal miners continue to consume high amounts of power without making payments.
Paraguay is a country in South America sharing borders with Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil. It has always been famous as a country with low power tariff rates for Bitcoin mining, but with the recent illegal mining increase, the stability of the power system is likely to be disturbed.
ANDE, the country’s national power administration, recently announced that the power consumption for the department of Alto Parana had grown immensely, with illegal operations being the biggest concern. Miguel Angel Baez, director of ANDE, has suggested increasing the vigilance of the zone and increasing supervision of operations to detect such illicit operations on the borders with Brazil. Further, he also mentioned that whenever the organization detects and disconnects an operation, another set appears, and the energy consumption by each operation uses energy equal to the consumption of an apartment complex in a day.
However, this situation isn’t the first time such a thing has happened; ANDE, in the past, has also disconnected power to the miners committing power-related crimes. In August, the regional head of the east division, Alfredo Arguello, also mentioned some illicit actions they observed, like direct connections, bypass connections, and modified power meters, which incurred losses worth $400,000 monthly.
This situation is also suspected to be the leading cause of the ANDE’s opposition to the cryptocurrency bill, which proposed the maximum fee to be only 15% higher than what is collected from other equivalent companies. The country’s president vetoed the bill, but the Senate rejected the veto.