Kazakhstan Taps Waste Gas for Cryptocurrency Miners

Kazakhstan has a unique solution to lure back energy-hungry cryptocurrency miners. The government plans to generate electricity from waste gas at oil fields, which would otherwise be burned off as a byproduct of extraction.

The country's new program aims to link miners with oil fields, where associated gas is currently being flared, or burned off, due to its high methane content and danger of explosion. By harnessing this gas in power plants, the national grid would not be overburdened.

This approach is not unprecedented; Russia's Gazprom has been working with Crypto Energy to build a data center at a Siberian gas field, where surplus gas is being repurposed for cryptocurrency mining.