Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

Electricity there is very cheap (ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 US cents per kWh).

The government has closed around 300 mining facilities in order to reduce energy shortages.

There are tens of such videos on the Youtube channel.

Related article: https://www.trtworld.com/asia/bitcoin-miners-blamed-for-ener...

I've never heard of Abkhazia before, so I had to look it up. It's a partially recognized state, part of Georgia [0].

There's even been a war in 1992-1993, after the collapse of the USSR [1].

Sometimes I'm still surprised of my ignorance about important facts that happened during my lifetime.

Anyway, the next question for me was: why is electricity so cheap there, and should I assume it's cheap 24/7, and therefore generated with hydro?

Electricity is largely supplied by the Inguri hydroelectric power station located on the Inguri River between Abkhazia and Georgia

there's even a study on Electricty consumption, if you really want to dig deeper into it. [2].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkhazia

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Abkhazia_(1992%E2%80%93...

[2]: http://iccn.ge/files/energy_study_results_abkhazia_2019_eng_...

Instead of trying to remove the symptoms, the government should focus on increasing their peoples productivity to put them in a position to pay higher electricity prices

Ethereum also uses Proof Of Work mining....