The worldwide cryptocurrency and blockchain regulatory framework is undergoing constant changes, backed by big perspective differences, resulting in friendly and anti-crypto laws.

As such, this article will cover 3 recent developments on the crypto regulatory trend, being carried out in Iran, Russia and Malta.

Iranian Crypto Miners Are Threatened with Power Cuts

Not long ago, Iran’s Deputy Energy Minister has shared his opinion on digital currency mining, and states that miners should be charged higher rates for their power usage. At that time, he also mentioned that subsidies should be cut to zero.

Unfortunately, the situation has gotten worse. Based on this, Iran’s state-sponsored power company, Tavanir, has warned cryptocurrency miners that they will be detected and that power cuts will be carried out. The argument behind this threat is that Iran’s power consumption has reportedly increased by 7% on a yearly basis, due to the vast increase in local crypto mining operations. Additionally, a new framework that makes utilizing the national power grid for mining operations has been implemented.

Despite the increased popularity of cryptocurrencies, the mining industry is still struggling in several countries. As part of this article, we will cover two recent developments that have taken place in Russia and Iran.

Russia Planning to Introduce Administrative Penalties for Crypto Miners

With this in mind, recent reports indicate that the Russian State Duma is currently debating whether administrative responsibility should be introduced for the local digital currency mining market. According to Anatoly Aksakov, the chairman of the Duma’s Financial Market Committee: “I note that any operations with cryptocurrency that are contrary to the Russian legislation will be considered illegitimate. This means that mining, organizing issuance, circulation, creating exchange points for these tools will be prohibited. Administrative liability in the form of a fine will be incurred for such actions. We believe that cryptocurrencies created on open blockchains such as bitcoins, ethers, and others are illegitimate tools.”

The cryptocurrency mining market has been pretty volatile over the last couple of years, granted massive price swings, updated regulatory frameworks, and fluctuating difficulty rates. Despite this aspect, tens of thousands of people throughout the world have invested in purchasing mining hardware, to help mine their favourite cryptocurrency, and turn a profit.

At this moment in time, most popular digital currencies rely on miners to dedicate their hardware resources to authenticate transactions, and ensure the fulfilment of the proof-of-work protocol, which in return, rewards them with newly-minted coin. Mining represents an immensely profitable market, especially when access to low-cost electricity is available, and when volatility brings coin prices up.

According to recent reports, the State Bank of Vietnam, which is also the country’s central bank, announced that it will ban the import of digital currency mining hardware for individuals and companies.

The decision represents the bank’s response to a request filed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). To put things better into perspective, the MoIT has recently suggested a temporary ban that would affect the import of mining hardware. The reasoning behind this is based on the issues concerning the management of currency flows in the region. According to the ministry, the use of mining equipment and cryptocurrencies is making financial management more difficult for the government. So far, mining has not been forbidden, and it is unknown whether the government is considering such a move.

While the popularity of bitcoin has increased considerably over the last few years, the electricity usage for transactions and mining are coming under scrutiny. Recent studies showcase that the amount of energy being used by computers which mine the digital currency this year, is much greater when compared to the annual usage of around 160 countries.

For those who do not know, mining is the process through which transactions are verified by the network, through the solving of complex cryptographic problems. To make sure that transactions aren’t falsified, and that records of ownership remain unchanged on the blockchain network, transactions must be signed off into blocks, which are then verified by the miners. Once a block is solved, a 12.5 BTC reward is given to the miner, or mining pool responsible. This amount serves as the main incentive for miners, but is also the way that new bitcoin is added to the market.

In case you have been following bitcoin news during the last couple of months, then chances are that you may have heard about the upcoming halving. Well, a couple of hours ago, bitcoin has just undergone its second halving event, thus marking the evolution of bitcoin through all these years.

To put things better into perspective, people who mine bitcoin are rewarded with bitcoin in return for their hard work. Well, the bitcoin protocol is coded in such a way to reduce the supply of bitcoin by half every 210,000 blocks or so, in order to maintain the need-demand laws, but also to make sure that the total number of 21 million coins will be mined over a prolonged period of time, rather than in 3-4 years or even less. Another law set in place for this purpose of the 10-minutes interval between confirmed blocks. In case the current bitcoin protocol remains unaltered in this perspective, then the last bitcoin will likely be mined in the year of 2140.

During the last couple of months, a brand new digital currency known by the name of Ethereum has seen its ups and downs, but so far, it seems like Ether’s value and Ethereum’s popularity are both going forward in full throttle.

According to recent reports, it seems like miners, the people who operate large networks of machines to verify crypto-transactions in exchange for monetary rewards, are taking an interest in moving towards Ethereum. In fact, the recent increases in the prices of Ether have encouraged miners to expand their operations and start mining Ether as well. With this in mind, as miners also make money when the return of the digital currency generated and the cryptocurrency sold exceeds the cost of electricity thus generating profit. As bitcoin’s halving is quickly approaching, mining btc will become more difficult and expensive, which may explain the move.

As time passes, bitcoin mining becomes significantly harder due to the way that bitcoin is built. In fact, the profitability of the business has the risk of decreasing substantially in case bitcoin’s worth does not increase once the halving process occurs this summer.

This is one of the main reasons why a company known by the name of CoinFac has recently announced their offer of next generation quantum computing mining technology that will reportedly increase the speed of miners by up to 4,000 times.

The Bitcoin network is built in such a way to meet supply and demand, while also encouraging growth of the digital currency’s value. Because of this, once every couple of years, a process known as halving takes place, meant to reduce the number of bitcoin that are mined.

Halving hasn’t received much media attention, considering the fact that the last one took place when bitcoin was still at its beginning, and not many people were involved with the cryptocurrency. However, the expected date for this change to happen once again is the 11th of July 2016, less than three months away. The initial impact of the act will be to cut down by half the reward that miners receive for verifying crypto-transactions that take place on the blockchain. Basically, their wages will be cut into half- unless the value of bitcoin increases.

Bitcoin mining is likely something that just about all of those involved with bitcoin have thought about doing, tried out or are doing at this exact moment. However, mining bitcoin at home can be quite a difficult experience considering the fact that doing it right doesn’t only require a massive electrical energy usage, but also the right hardware, thus making the process quite expensive.

However, there are a couple of firms in different areas from all around the world which have been mining bitcoin ever since it became popular. These actual mines are both very expensive to maintain, but are also kept hidden from the public eye, due to the large amount of bitcoin which is being mined.