Abkhazia Develops Draft Law on Crypto Mining

The Ministry of Economy of the partially-recognized Republic of Abkhazia has developed a law draft on the settlement of cryptocurrency mining activities in the country. The news was reported by a local branch of Russian state-backed media outlet Sputnik on June 24.

The press service of the Ministry told Sputnik that the drafted bill was approved and sent to the Cabinet of Ministers of the republic. The proposed regulation defines legal, economic, organizational, and technical rules for the implementation of mining cryptocurrency activities in the republic. 

To conduct crypto mining operations, one will have to register as a legal entity or an entrepreneur, as well as register with the revenue authorities as a taxpayer and obtain a license for cryptocurrency mining activities.

The report outlined that the law will leave open the possibility of introducing temporary restrictions on use of the republic’s power system for cryptocurrency mining in the event of crisis situations in the energy grid, such as infrastructure limitations or power shortages.

In December 2018, the government of Abkhazia banned cryptocurrency mining on the country's electric power system.

As reported in January, the Abkhazian government cut power to 15 facilities with a total capacity of 8,950 kilowatt-hours (kWh), which was purportedly equivalent to the electricity consumption of 1,800 households. The cuts were part of a series of “temporary measures to limit the consumption of electricity by certain categories of subscribers."

Earlier in June, Anatoly Aksakov, the chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, said that the government may introduce administrative responsibility for digital currency mining by the end of the month.