According to the Venezuelan Minister of Habitat and Housing, the government has banned mining operations in any low-income neighborhoods with subsidized housing. Ildemaro Villarroel told the public the restrictions are due to “high power consumption” in those areas.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela has decided to not allow cryptocurrency mining in specific neighborhoods, specifically low-income areas with subsidized electrical costs.
Venezuela’s Minister of Habitat and Housing, Ildemaro Villarroel, explained that the ban was due to an excessive amount of power consumption. The news follows the story about the Venezuelan military that recently seized approximately 315 Bitmain Antminers.
Villarroel said during the announcement that “it is forbidden to install cryptocurrency mining equipment in urban plannings of Gran Misión Housing Venezuela for its high energy consumption.” The Minister added:
In this coordinated work, we have detected the harmful effects of these elements of high electrical demand in the public houses of the Gran Misión Vivienda project.
A small clip of Villarroel’s announcement was tweeted by Vtv Canal 8, a Venezuelan television broadcast. Some individuals didn’t like the bitcoin mining mandate in these neighborhoods and one person tweeted “only for the government.”