Uzbekistan Mandates Solar Energy as the Only Power Source for Miners

Key Insights:

• Cryptocurrency mining can only be done by solar power now. 
• Perspective Projects Agency will be overseeing the crypto industry in Uzbekistan.
• No license will be required for mining crypto now.

In two different announcements in the last 24 hours, the government of Uzbekistan, led by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, announced a set of regulations for crypto-related operations in the country.

Uzbekistan to make crypto “domestic”

Firstly, the country set a regulatory framework for its crypto industry participants, and in doing so, it also renamed the National Agency for Project Management agency to be called the Perspective Projects Agency (PPA), which will oversee the crypto space. 

Supervised by the PPA, local crypto exchanges have been directed to store the transaction data of the users that register on the platform after verifying their identity through the KYC process.

Going forward, the PPA will also be responsible for establishing new policies concerning crypto and preventing illicit uses of the technology and cryptocurrencies.

In line with this announcement, Uzbekistan also legalized solar-powered crypto mining. In doing so, companies using solar energy for crypto mining and the companies affiliated with crypto in any form or manner will be exempted from paying income taxes.

Since environmental concerns stemming from crypto operations’ power usage have been a consistent discussion in the world, Uzbekistan is doing its fair share in cutting down excessive power consumption.

Cryptocurrency miners have been mandated to use only solar energy for mining.

The government wants to keep tabs

Before the Uzbekistan government announced exchanges would need to store user transaction data, India released a similar directive two days ago.

As reported, the IT Ministry asked all virtual asset service providers, exchanges, and custodian wallet providers to maintain all information of the users, as well as the records of financial transactions for a period of five years.