Energy demand is high and supplies are low from Europe to Asia. Many countries in the European Union have enacted emergency provisions to help their most vulnerable citizens survive a winter of sky-high energy bills. China is returning to coal with a vengeance while India threatens to run out of it entirely. Supply chains are disrupted around the globe and inflation is on the rise worldwide. In Kazakhstan, the government has kept energy prices artificially low, but that has invited a new and unforeseen challenge: the rise of cryptocurrency mining is now compounding the energy crisis. Mining cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin requires massive amounts of energy . The process involves solving extremely complex “proof of work” calculations that require massive amounts of computational energy. To keep cryptocurrencies secure and to keep the rate of production stable, these puzzles become increasingly harder to solve the more people try to mine […]