Cuba and its blackouts could extinguish cryptocurrency mining on the island

Cryptocurrency mining in Cuba is falling victim to the Caribbean island’s electricity crisis, where power outages disrupt the operation of mining hardware and impact potential revenues for operators.

For several months, residents of Cuba have been subjected to continuous blackouts lasting up to 10 hours. In addition to weather phenomena such as Hurricane Ian, the state of the country’s power plants is far from optimal. As a result Power generation capacity has been lower than demand.

“This is the country of instability; I would say it is the riskiest country in the world to invest in any business. Like many others, I have invested a lot of money in cryptocurrency mining equipment that is not cheap at all. With the blackouts coming, cryptocurrency mining in Cuba is impossible to sustain.”

Raydel González, Cuban cryptocurrency miner.

According to Gonzalez’s testimony to local mediahe and many Cubans have taken refuge in cryptocurrency mining “to survive” because it represents an alternative source of income that allows them to pay for products and services. also abroad. However, power outages have reduced the profitability of this business in the country.

Cuban miners left without alternative solutions

Eduardo Gómez, another Cuban miner, tried to supply himself with electricity with his own generator, but even this was not an effective solution to his problem. “I thought the solution was to buy a power plant, but then came the fuel crisis. Many times I spent the whole day in order to be able to buy some gasoline and eventually, with its price and the number of hours the blackouts were increasing, it was no longer profitable to do even that,” Gómez commented.

The Internet, another essential resource for the cryptocurrency miningis also affected by power outages and fuel shortages in Cuba, as equipment stops working. Thus, miners who manage to maintain their equipment can face this other vicissitude.

One of the riskier solutions that some cryptocurrency miners in Cuba choose is to move their equipment to their workplace, as state-owned workplaces have power plants. However, this can lead to consequences such as job loss. and their extraction hardware, as well as more serious penalties.

The last option that many people resort to. miners on the island is to sell their equipment, most often at a loss, to recover at least part of their investment. “Today in Cuba you can find mining equipment at prices far below its value because almost no one can use it,” according to miner Eduardo Gómez.

Cuban government plans improvements in electrical service

In recent days, Cuba’s state-owned Unión Eléctrica has reported a decrease in its energy deficit. In fact, it is estimated that daytime hours will no longer be affected by blackouts. henceforth.

Although the Cuban government has announced that it will repair and invest in upgrading the national electricity system to reduce blackouts by the end of 2022, some electricity system users are still unable to access it. questioning these claims and claim that the decrease in the electricity deficit is only due to the cool weather at this time of year. Therefore, as soon as another heat wave arrives, blackouts will increase again.

In Venezuela, miners in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have gone through situations similar to those experienced by Cubans in terms of shortages of services such as electricity and internet. Although the Venezuelan energy situation does not appear as dire as it did after the 2019 national blackout, it still requires urgent attention to be a system capable of sustaining the country’s demand.

CryptoNews reported that many Venezuelan miners have received hope thanks to a possible agreement between the national government and Siemens Energy AG. These are. the recovery of 9,000 megawatts. of energy from the power system by 2025.