Russian oil companies have offered to use Russian equipment for mining cryptocurrency in their fields, Russian media informed.
The proposal has been sent for consideration to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Digital Industry, and the Bank of Russia, Kommersant reports regarding a letter from the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Vasily Shpak dated 7 September.
The project may be of interest to foreign investors, primarily from China, since cryptocurrency mining is prohibited in this country. At the same time, the law on the circulation of digital currencies in Russia has not been adopted.
The oilmen’s proposal involves the use of associated petroleum gas to generate electricity and supply nearby data processing centers (DPCs) required for cryptocurrency mining.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade asks the Central Bank to assess whether such a proposal is legitimate. According to the law “On digital financial assets”, the procedure for the circulation of digital currency must be regulated by separate laws.
Igor Dorofeev, the head of the Association of Data Center Industry Participants, noted that the offer of oil workers is non-core and costly for them in terms of data center maintenance.
