Residents of Svaneti, Georgia, have been made to pledge oaths that they will not mine cryptocurrency in order to deal with energy shortages blamed on Bitcoin mining.
The economy of the region of Georgia depends on tourism spending, which rose every year from 2000 to 2019 a. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, tourism plummeted in 2020 and has only recently begun to return to pre-Covid levels of growth.
To make do, hundreds of residents turned to mining crypto which has been blamed for severely disrupting the electrical supply.
Crypto mining has become a controversial topic, with residents staging protests in the Svaneti town of Mestia and the electric company that provides them with power, Energo Pro, threatening to increase electricity tariffs.
Svaneti is a mountainous region of Georgia which currently enjoys free electricity in some parts, which makes mining more attractive.
This situation is becoming increasingly common around the world. Bitcoin miners have flocked to countries with cheap energy to the chagrin of local residents
