The Centralized Bloodshed of Cryptocurrency in Kazakhstan
You have seen the headlines about violent political turmoil taking place across Kazakhstan, but to be honest, you probably thought it had nothing to do with you. After all, you don’t live in Kazakhstan. You live somewhere apparently far removed from Kazakhstan, in places like San Francisco, London, or Lisbon. It seems like something happening over there, not where you live.
What is happening where you are? Cryptocurrency is happening where you are. You’ve heard stories about people making huge amounts of money by investing in cryptocurencies like Bitcoin, and the profits seeming to come out of thin air.
The plain truth is this: Profits never come out of thin air.
When you don’t know where profits are coming from, it’s because their source is hidden. The source is hidden because someone doesn’t want you to look at what’s happening there.
There’s a bloody revolution in Kazakhstan right now because wealthy Westerners don’t want to look at where the value in their crypto assets has come from.
Wealth held in cryptocurrency has been coming from places such as Kazakhstan, which is home to one-fifth of the world’s Bitcoin mining operations. Bitcoin mining operations in Kazakhstan run huge banks of computers day and night, consuming immense amounts of electricity, created by burning dirty fossil fuels. The profits go almost exclusively to foreigners, in places like Europe and the United States.
Bitcoin mining operations swarmed to Kazakhstan because of the country’s authoritarian centralized government. There are few pesky regulations to deal with in centralized authoritarian countries like Kazakhstan, and cryptocurrency investors love it.
Forget what the cryptocurrency faithful and blockchain afficionados tell you about decentralization. The big players in cryptocurrency markets prefer to operate in countries controlled by dictatorial strongmen precisely because the centralized governments there are corrupt, and will look the other way no matter how badly blockchain schemes abuse the general population. A little bribery is all it takes to keep the arrangement well-protected.
READ FULL ARTICLE:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/centralized-bloodshed-cryptocurrency-kazakhstan-jonathan-cook
Kazakh government resigns, shuts down internet amid protests, causing Bitcoin network hash rate to tumble 13.4%
On Wednesday, Kazakhstan, the second-largest country in the world when it comes to Bitcoin (BTC) mining hash rate, experienced unprecedented political unrest due to a sharp rise in fuel prices. As a result, the country’s presiding cabinet resigned, but not before the state-owned Kazakhtelecom shut down the nation’s internet, causing network activity to plunge to 2% of daily heights.
The move dealt a severe blow to Bitcoin mining activity in the country. As per data compiled by YCharts.com, the Bitcoin network’s overall hash rate declined 13.4% in the hours after the shutdown from about 205,000 petahash per second (PH/s) to 177,330 PH/s. The country accounts for 18% of the Bitcoin network’s hash activity.
Just days prior, the Kazakh government removed price caps on liquefied petroleum gas used for car fuel to align with market conditions, which doubled its price overnight, sparking violent protests. At the time of publication, the internet remains inaccessible in Kazakhstan. If extended, the consequences could be severe as internet services aside, the Data Center Industry & Blockchain Association of Kazakhstan expects the country to generate $1.5 billion from legal cryptocurrency mining (and another $1.5 billion in illicit) activities over the next five years.
The country’s low energy prices have attracted both domestic and foreign entities to set up shop for Bitcoin mining. According to Global Petrol Prices, electricity in Kazakhstan costs on average just $0.055 per kWh for businesses, a fraction of the $0.12 per kWh paid by U.S. businesses.
READ FULL ARTICLE:https://blockchainyeti.com/kazakh-government-resigns-shuts-down-internet-amid-protests-causing-bitcoin-network-hash-rate-to-tumble-13-4/
”EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED, THIS IS ALL HAPPENING FOR A REASON. IT SEEMS LIKE Q WAS RIGHT AGAIN. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING.