Crypto assets offer advantages on the island such as access to online purchases abroad. In August 2021, the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) regulated the granting of licenses to virtual asset service providers.
Cuban cryptocurrency miners made evident in the last hours the reality that they have to go through. In that country, many young entrepreneurs had found an alternative to obtaining foreign currency in cryptocurrency mining. It happens that the return of the electric power cuts prevents them from being able to carry out the activity correctly.
Crypto assets offer different advantages on the island, such as access to online purchases abroad, recharges for mobile phones, sending remittances, and payments for services on the Internet.
The miners, use powerful computers to compete with each other and find solutions to complex mathematical problems before everyone else, notices problems. After the energy crisis and with the return of the blackouts, the protagonists narrate the difficulties they are going through.
Miners Facing Problems in Cuba
Mining requires a constant internet connection. In addition, the power consumption of graphics cards is high. Power cuts in many places cause ETCSA plants to stop working (also due to fuel shortages). Therefore, internet services are affected intermittently.
Some miners have tried to look for alternatives such as power plants or battery-powered voltage converters, but so far the variants are not profitable, or simply not sustainable.
Desperate, some miners have tried to sell their technology park below the original value. Others risk their jobs or even expose themselves to some other greater sanction for hiding their mining equipment in state-owned work centers that have power plants.
Regulation on Digital Assets
In August 2021, the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) regulated the granting of licenses to virtual asset service providers. The application was for operations related to financial, exchange, as well as collection or payment activities in cryptocurrencies.
The regulations establish that exchange activities with cryptocurrencies will be regulated by the Central Bank as long as they involve people or institutions settled in the Caribbean country. The entity communicated details of the regulations as follows:
“Within the scope of its competence, it dictates the legal provisions that proceed, for the purposes of preventing and confronting money laundering, financing of terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and executes the necessary actions for the implementation of the provisions.”
Any irregularity in the exchange activity with cryptocurrencies will be at the disposal of the Superintendent of the Central Bank of Cuba. However, mining still continues in legal limbo.
By Audy Castaneda
