Cryptocurrencies and processing power in Russia: a new strategic territory in eastern Siberia?. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Estecahandy, Hugo; Limonier, Kevin
• Is Part Of: Journal of cyber policy. Volume 6:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 68
• Page End: 80
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Cryptocurrency -- Bitcoin -- Russia -- Siberia -- mining; Cyberspace -- Periodicals; Internet -- Periodicals; Cyber intelligence (Computer security) -- Periodicals; 004.6
• DOI: 10.1080/23738871.2021.1939746
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2373-8871

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper analyses the emerging Russian cryptocurrency mining industry, with a particular focus on eastern Siberia. This major strategic industry provides the region with a growing calculation power and fosters potential innovations – in encryption especially. In fact, the crypto-mining industry has noticeably coalesced in eastern Siberia because the region offers a series of geographic, climatic, economic and technical advantages – the magnitude of which is hard to match anywhere else in the world. This article focuses on the oblast of Irkutsk and shows how crypto-mining has come to encompass both economic and political powers and to involve a number of Russian actors and infrastructures. Ultimately, the local dynamics in eastern Siberia teach us a lot about the fate of the industry nationally.