The government of Kosovo has decided to ban cryptocurrency mining as the country faces some of the worst electricity shortages in its history this winter.

There has been widespread controversy and overly-scheduled protests power cuts which is taking place across the country with the aim of conserving energy amid the global energy crisis.

Atrane Rizvanolli, the Ministry of the Economy, decided on Tuesday (January 4th) to ban cryptocurrency mining in Kosovo. He said in a statement that the decision was taken with the recommendation of the Technical Committee on Emergency Measures for Energy Supply.

“These actions aim to address the potential unexpected or long-term lack of power generation capacity, power transmission or distribution capacity to overcome the situation without further burdening the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo,” said Rizvanolli.

The committee was set up to assess various energy saving measures. Rizvanolli said police and authorities would intervene to ensure compliance with the ban. Additionally, they will identify locations suspected of mining cryptos such as bitcoin.

The state of emergency was declared in December 2021 and will remain in effect for the next 60 days. This allows the government to set aside more money for energy imports and to schedule blackouts.

Kosovo gets most of its energy from coal-fired power plants and exports fossil fuels to neighboring Albania. In winter, demand for energy increases, causing blackouts across the country. Scheduled outages last two hours, run throughout the day, and impact both households and businesses.

Cryptocurrency mining involves significant amounts of energy used to power computers that solve crypto equations to be rewarded with currency.