A gray miner from Irkutsk burned down immediately after buying a new farm

On the night of February 14, a fire claimed the life of a 50-year-old man near Irkutsk. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the tragedy occurred in the village of Vvedenshchina, Shelekhovsky district. The blazing fire instantly destroyed the log bath and the car. The cause of the accident is illegal mining already familiar to the inhabitants of the region. It looks like the crypto chasing for easy money is turning into a full blown disaster.

Photo: Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Irkutsk region

According to a miraculously surviving eyewitness of the fire, the owner of the site brought a new set of devices for cryptocurrency mining the day before. On the night of February 14, he installed a new farm to the already existing mining equipment on the veranda of the bathhouse, connected it and went to bed. Even the fire alarm installed in the building did not save. A worker woke up from her, who discovered the crypto-farms engulfed in flames. The builder ran out into the street and woke up the owner of the house, who was sleeping on the attic floor, with screams. Despite the entreaties to jump down, the 50-year-old miner decided to go to the exit, enveloped in fire and smoke. As a result, the man died, and the worker received burns to his face and hands. Two departments of the 6th fire and rescue unit, as well as a team of volunteers from the village of Baklashi, fought the fire for 30 minutes. Investigators believe the most likely cause of the fatal fire was electrical.

Why crypto farms are on fire

While the authorities are discussing bills and other measures to introduce mining into the legal field, cheap electricity is attracting more and more new crypto businessmen. Irkutsk, which has become the unofficial capital of mining in recent years, is experiencing all the “charms” of this trend. They say in the region that only the lazy do not engage in this business, because mining is still not considered an entrepreneurial activity, data on installing a farm in any room connected to electricity is easy to find on the Internet, and low data make it a good way at first glance to earn extra money.

“Now Russia is in third place in terms of mining volumes. Nevertheless, if we take the entire Russian mining market, then 90% of it will actually be concentrated in two regions – in the Irkutsk region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory. It is clear why. There are mighty rivers here, on which there are hydroelectric power stations, and hydropotential is the cheapest energy,” notes Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Denis Terekhov.

Few digital gold seekers of the 21st century appreciate all the risks of this activity. Mining craze in Irkutsk and in a number of other regions has become a real headache for power engineers. Power grids not designed for such a surge in loads simply cannot cope with them. In addition, new miners are increasingly plugging hastily assembled equipment into ordinary home outlets. As a result, residents are increasingly experiencing power outages and the casualty and casualty incidents described above.

“When we start to analyze why consumption is growing so rapidly, it turns out that electricity is not used to heat houses, light or operate household appliances like a refrigerator and TV, but to an illegal business – cryptocurrency mining. It turns out that legal entrepreneurs should subsidize the business of private individuals hidden under household consumption through energy tariffs,” – emphasized Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Energy Committee Natalya Nazarova.

Regions are in no hurry to solve the problem

Experts who meticulously study the issue of gray mining in Russia have long been proposing a quick and effective way out of this situation – the introduction of an incentive tariff for electricity, differentiated by the level of consumption. The meaning of the measure is as follows: the higher the level of consumption, the higher the rate. The volume of consumption of a small crypto-farm is a multiple of the amount of electricity needed by a modern person for a comfortable life, which means that illegal miners will no longer be able to disguise themselves as households.

This method will allow you to effectively identify violators and, most likely, discourage the interest of unfortunate businessmen who want to quickly earn easy money, and the funds received from professional miners can be directed to the development of energy infrastructure. The winners will be ordinary residents of the regions who will not have to worry about their property because of negligent cryptocurrency neighbors. In addition, regular interruptions in electricity will disappear, and the quality of the supplied energy will improve. With a fair calculation of the established level of consumption, such a measure will affect no more than 1% of the population.

“One of the options approved by the government is the introduction of fair incentive tariffs for electricity with differentiation according to the volume of consumption: so that consumption in excess of household consumption (domestic needs) is paid for at full price. This will have a double effect: to limit the load on networks from miners and other gray entrepreneurs, and at the same time to reduce the amount of cross-subsidization,” added Natalya Nazarova.

More than a year ago, all conditions were created for organizing incentive tariffs in the regions. The government adopted Decree No. 2306 dated December 16, 2021, which gives the regions the right to set electricity tariffs based on the volume of its consumption. You can use it in any month of 2023.

Despite the growing problem of underground mining, regional authorities are in no particular hurry to introduce differentiated tariffs. So far, only Kuzbass has joined the proposed measure. There, since December 1, the cost of a unit of energy depends on the total volume of consumption. The population is divided into three categories: those who consume up to 400 kW / h, from 400 to 650 kW / h and over 650 kW / h. During the heating period, the ranges will be different: up to 1200 kW/h, from 1200 kW/h to 1800 kW/h and over 1800 kW/h, respectively. The price will vary from 3.01 rubles to 8.86 rubles, depending on consumption volumes.

In the fall of 2021, the governor of the Irkutsk region appealed to the federal authorities with a complaint against gray miners. It was Mr. Kobzev who came up with the idea to give the regions the right to independently determine energy tariffs for users based on consumption volumes. However, today everything is still the same in the “capital” of mining in Russia: cryptocurrency miners mine digital coins, and residents put up with regular power outages and regularly read EMERCOM reports about terrible fires.