Comedian President's Surprise Move! Ukraine's Energy Ministry in Talks on Mining Bitcoin with Surplus Nuclear Power

According to a post on Facebook by Ukrainian parliament member Geo Leros, Ukrainian Deputy Energy Minister Olha Buslavets has written to the state-owned nuclear power plant operator Energoatom, considering the use of surplus electricity for cryptocurrency mining. If the coordination between the two parties goes well, we may soon see the emergence of a national mining industry.

• Assessment of nuclear mining feasibility before May 8
• Ukraine previously advocated for unregulated mining

Ukraine's Ministry of Energy today publicly explained on its official Facebook account the decision to explore the feasibility of nuclear mining, following the news disclosed by Russian blockchain media Fork Log on the 5th of this month. The surplus of electricity from the country's nuclear power plants due to the impact of the coronavirus lockdown is seen as a win-win situation by Ukraine. The post mentioned:

President Volodymyr Zelensky's vision is to digitally transform Ukraine, adopting innovative solutions to avoid wastage of energy resources, which is the best way for sustainable development.

One modern way to utilize excess electricity is in the field of cryptocurrency mining, which not only ensures the basic load for nuclear power plants but also attracts additional funding for the company. This paves the way for new economic foundations and market models.

According to the message, nuclear power operator Energoatom will explore the feasibility of mining cryptocurrency with nuclear power before May 8. Ukrainian parliament member Geo Leros expressed his dissatisfaction on Facebook, stating that nuclear power plants are one of Ukraine's few remaining national resources, and the Ministry of Energy is destroying the country's last asset.

Ukraine has been known as a mining-friendly country, advocating for a policy of unregulated mining. The country's digital transformation department previously stated:

Mining activities are part of creating an open decentralized network, which does not require regulation by government agencies or other third-party methods, and should be regulated by the agreements themselves, blockchain consensus rules, and network members.

In addition, there was news last year of employees at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant stealing electricity to mine Bitcoin using GPU rigs. Given that nuclear power plants require high levels of security, this incident was seen by Ukraine's intelligence agency as a potential leakage of national secrets.

Current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a well-known comedian in the country, unexpectedly won the presidential election in May last year. Possibly due to his background, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk even criticized the President earlier this year as an "economic layman," raising questions about whether using surplus nuclear power for crypto mining is a wise decision and could potentially change his image as a political novice.

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