Kazakhstan’s internet connectivity has been disrupted yet again, following the resignation of the government.
Internet shutdown across the country
Since Sunday, thousands of people have gone to the streets in Kazakhstan to protest rising petrol prices. Previously, the Kazakh government had lifted price limitations on liquefied petroleum gas, resulting in a price increase. According to a NetBlocks report, the government officially resigned on Wednesday, coinciding with a nationwide Internet outage.
While Internet service interruptions are usual in Kazakhstan during elections and rallies, the intensity of the current Internet outage is “markedly on a different scale,” according to Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks:
What’s striking here is the rapid deployment of internet restrictions at national scale, effectively resulting in an information vacuum both inside and outside the country. This has made it difficult to get a clear picture of what is happening on the ground in Kazakhstan as political instability spirals.
Naturally, the Internet shutdown means that cryptocurrency miners are also offline. Kazakhstan is the second-largest contributor to Bitcoin mining, accounting for more than 20% of the total hashrate.
Kosovo is the latest country to ban cryptocurrency mining
According to Reuters, miners in Kosovo are also in trouble after the government imposed a blanket ban on crypto mining on Tuesday. Due to an energy shortage, the Balkan country proclaimed a state of emergency for 60 days in December.
Kosovo gets the majority of its energy from the combustion of lignite coal. With the arrival of winter, the country became increasingly reliant on energy imports, with up to 40% of its energy usage requiring imports.
According to Reuters, crypto mining has grown in popularity in Serbian-populated areas where residents do not recognize the Kosovan government and refuse to pay for power. One miner, who has 40 GPUs, indicated that he pays only 170 EUR per month to make 2,400 EUR in income.
