At the end of last week, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko proposed to build a large data center for mining cryptocurrency next to the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The initiative of the president was welcomed by the mining community. Local experts Alexander Lozben, Victor Prokopen and Alexei Vorobey told how BlockchainJournal magazine was implementing the idea on the country's economy.

Founder of Cryptocode and member of the Belarusian Blockchain Association Alexander Lozben:

I think the creation of a mining zone is a very necessary and logical step for Belarus.

First of all, legislation in the field of cryptocurrency regulation is successfully operating in Belarus, and there are companies, including ours, whose main activity is connected with mining. Naturally, at current electricity prices, mining in Belarus is not the most profitable activity.

Also consider the international situation. The nuclear power plant stands on the border with Lithuania – the EU and Russia are not interested in buying Belarusian electricity, and Belarus alone cannot consume so much energy. With the commissioning of a nuclear power plant, the excess electricity will have to go somewhere. In hours when there is no peak load, it is more logical to sell it to those who need it, than to spend resources on its destruction.

The community has been waiting for the NPP to be commissioned for a long time, as it has been rumored for a long time that there will be a zone with preferential prices for electricity not far from the power plant.

Belarus has every chance to attract a large number of miners, but this depends primarily on electricity tariffs.

It is difficult to say whether this step will be of great benefit to the country, as many are concerned about the safety of nuclear power plants, and in my understanding it seems more promising to build electricity generating stations using renewable energy sources. At the same time, many blockchains are switching to less resource-intensive PoS and, as it seems to me, this trend will continue.

Founder of VP Capital Victor Prokopenya:

In Belarus, an excellent legislative base for mining, however, there is no cheap electricity. Of course, in the mining community, this news was very positively received.

And personally, I do not see any obstacles to the implementation of the initiative of the president.

If we talk about the profitability of mining, then due to the influence of many factors, it is almost as difficult to predict as the rate of cryptocurrency.

Considering that NPPs will generate a lot of free electricity, mining, probably, with a positive scenario, can significantly speed up the return on investment in the project.

Alexey Vorobey, Chairman of the Board of the Distributed Registers Technology Association:

After full start-up, the NPP will produce significant surplus of electricity.

If the management of the management company is effective in the supply of mining equipment and work with large pools, then we will receive in Belarus a significant source of liquidity and a pure cryptocurrency that is in demand in the world market.

As a reminder, since March 28, 2018, a presidential decree “On the Development of the Digital Economy” has been in force in Belarus. The document officially permits to carry out operations with cryptocurrency, to engage in mining, open Bitcoin exchanges and crypto-exchangers. However, these initiatives are allowed only in the capital 's High-Tech Park .

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