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Kosovo bans cryptocurrency mining after blackouts:
The government says security services will identify and clamp down on sources of cryptocurrency mining.
The mining is energy intensive and involves verifying digital transactions to get cryptocurrencies as a reward.
While all of Europe faces sharp price rises, Kosovo is enforcing rolling blackouts amid an electricity shortage.
The Balkan state's largest coal-fired power plant was shut down last month over a technical issue, forcing the government to import electricity at high prices.
A 60-day state of emergency, declared in December, gave the government powers to allocate more money for energy imports and impose stricter restrictions on power usage.
The blackouts have sparked protests and calls for the resignation of Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli.
Energy prices are skyrocketing across Europe for various reasons, including low supplies from Russia and high demand for natural gas as economies recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The spike has been fuelled by geopolitical tensions with Russia, which supplies one third of Europe's gas. Russia has rejected European accusations that it has limited gas deliveries while tensions are raised
(Score: 2) by owl on Sunday January 09 2022, @03:10AM
They are probably using the politician definition of a "budget cut" here to spin the narrative of "low supplies". Yes, real supply increased by 8.3% -- but the receiving end was expecting an increase of 16.6%, so the receiving end is being short-supplied by 8.3%.
You can watch this all the time in political debates on budget items. Department X received 20M last year. Department X asked for 200M this year. Department X received an actual 100M this year. Opponents cry "politician X cut the budget of Department X by 100M", when in fact Department X is 80M richer than they were last year.