The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is planning to construct two hydroelectric-powered pilots “mining farms” to profit from a bullish global cryptocurrency market.
As per the report published by Reuters, over time cryptocurrency is being widely accepted, more so after the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk invested into this cause, along with it the first big U.S. bank, Morgan Stanley, offering its wealth management customers access to bitcoin funds.
Crypto mining farms include large investments in computer data centers that need enormous amounts of power.
To promote this notion, Pakistan has established a federal committee to formulate a new crypto policy, even as neighboring India is preparing to ban cryptocurrencies completely. The cost of the mining project has yet to be decided.
“People have already been approaching us for investment, and we want them to come to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, earn some money and have the province earn from that as well,” said Zia Ullah Bangash, advisor to the provincial government on science and technology.
Both mining and trading in cryptocurrencies in current times exist in a legal grey region in Pakistan. Therefore, federal authorities would have to present a clear pathway towards authorizing the division before it could be officially be opened to investors.
In 2018, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said digital currencies were not legal tender and the regulator had not allowed anyone to deal in them in the country. Moreover, Pakistan is currently on the global Financial Action Task Force grey list, and one of the regions the global money-laundering surveillant has urged Islamabad to better regulate its cryptocurrencies.
“It’s really just our government that is not participating right now, people all over Pakistan are already working on this, either mining or trading in cryptocurrencies and they are earning an income from it,” Bangash said. “We are hoping to bring this to a government level so things can be controlled and online fraud or other scams can be prevented.”
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