Bitcoin Cryptocurrency: Kazakhstan's young woman known for her crypto currency mining
Last year, when China banned cryptocurrency mining, the industry began to flourish in neighboring Kazakhstan.
The Central Asian country is now the world's second-largest cryptocurrency mining nation after the United States, but the country's data centers are putting significant pressure on Kazakhstan's coal-fired power plants and raising concerns about carbon emissions.
Maldir Sabhayeva is a new type of businesswoman from the crypto currency mining business in Kazakhstan. Coming out of her new bitcoin mine, she looks very different from the engineers and laborers standing around.
Maldir is 35 years old and his sharp thinking is evident in his clothes. His spectacles are yellow. Roads are being built outside and welding work is also underway.
He is closely monitoring the construction of his bitcoin mine in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
A leading woman in the male-dominated industry
Maldir Sabhayeva has become a well-known name in this industry, which is usually full of men. With his hard work, he has made his company one of the largest corrupt mining companies in the country.
I've only worked for the last four years of my life," she says. Sometimes I slept in the office.
Mildir's interest in bitcoin began five years ago. He started bitcoin mining at home with his brother, and gradually the matter reached big mines and he started renting out his mines to other customers.
"My business has grown tremendously in Kazakhstan and in the industry over the past year," she says. My every morning starts with checking the price of bitcoin. It was a happy time when it was 50,000.
The price of bitcoin fluctuates rapidly. In March 2020, it was 000 5,000, but in one year it went up to 65,000. Now the price has dropped and there was a time when it reached 35,000.
But Maldir and others like him believe that mining is still a lucrative business.
Digital Gold
The question is, what is corrupt mining?
Crypto currency mining is the process by which all cryptocurrencies are generated. No government or bank is involved.
Every payment is accepted or rejected by a large network of computers. Extremely powerful computers are needed for this accounting of transactions.
And those who contribute to the computer power for this work are rewarded with a bitcoin.
Kazakhstan currently accounts for about 18% of the global cryptocurrency mining network.
Crypto mining became popular in Kazakhstan in 2019. There were two reasons for this, one was cheap electricity and the other was soft government policies.
But when China banned it in 2021, the business in Kazakhstan began to grow rapidly.
The country was flooded with corrupt companies and they started installing big computers. The existing crypto mining centers in the country could not meet the demand and so new businesses started coming in the market.
"It's the sound of money, of digital money."
When you travel 1300 km from Almaty to the city of Akbastuz, you realize how big the crypto mining industry is in the country. During this trip you will see the world's largest crypto mine planted by a company called Angix.
The first thing that comes to mind here is the sound here. Thousands of computers are running and the wings of the small computers attached to them are ringing.
Apart from these, in the halls where these computers are kept, the sounds of big wings are also echoing.
The owner of this crypto mine is 34-year-old Erbolson. "The sound of machines makes me happy, because it's the sound of money, of digital money," he says with a smile.
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Like Mildir, Erbolson started small-scale crypto mining a few years ago. He started his company in his garage. Today, his 300 million machine runs 24 hours a day, employing 150 people.
They have dozens of engineers and they have to stay in this desert center for 15 days. They work 12-hour shifts.
Almaz Magaz has been working here for over a year. Their job is to clean the soil with machines. They do not get much rest during the shift. He admits that in the beginning he did not know what these machines do.
"Before I came here, I didn't know much about bitcoin," he says. I never heard of it.
Erbolson is monitoring Almaz and his other staff from Almaty with the help of CCTV cameras.
"We are proud that Kazakhstan has become so important in the world in terms of cryptocurrency," says Erbolson. We are patriotic people and we want to enhance the prestige of our country.
But not everyone in the country is happy with Kazakhstan's success. Environmentalists often criticize the use of excessive electricity on these cryptocurrency mines.
The University of Cambridge runs the Bitcoin Power Consumption Index. According to him, bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than the total electricity consumption of Ukraine or Norway.
It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
The main source of energy here is coal, especially for heat generation and electricity.
Dana lives in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. It has the largest coal reserves in the country. She expressed concern over the prosperity of the country in the name of crypto mining at the expense of environmental damage.
"Every day when I go out of my house, I see pollution," she says. In winter, I can't even see my neighbor's house. I don't understand why I'm breathing in this atmosphere. '
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