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Over the past few days, crypto media have been stirred up by the news that the government of Kazakhstan is considering a ban on cryptocurrency mining. This was alleged by Daniyar Akishev, Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan. Is the country really going to become the first to ban mining, or was that merely a statement by an official who doesn’t understand the technology? Let’s take a closer look at what’s actually going on in Kazakhstan.
Also read: Interest in Cryptocurrency Jumped 15-Fold in Kazakhstan
Why Some People Want to Ban Mining
Author: Leonid Muravjov
For 80 years, Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union, where entrepreneurship was treated as a criminal offense. Buying and selling any commodity by a private individual was considered profiteering, punishable by a prison term of up to seven years and confiscation of property. The underdeveloped entrepreneurship, along with the inability to reorient the economy and the slow pace of innovation, still hamper the development of most post-Soviet countries.
In modern-day Kazakhstan, most managers of large enterprises, as well as the top-ranking officials, have received Western education through the “Bolashak” state program fully covering the costs. Many of them are Ivy League graduates. The country is moving forward thanks to these people. Those who think in late 20th century terms are holding it back.
The Governor of the National Bank has never worked in business. He graduated from the Institute of National Economy, in Kazakhstan in the ‘90s, and is now trying to bring the country back to that decade.
