Panic as Kosovo pulls the plug on its energy-guzzling bitcoin miners

The largest-scale crypto mining is thought to be taking place in the north of the country, where the Serb-majority population refuse to recognise Kosovo as an independent state and have consequently not paid for electricity for more than two decades.

Jason Deane, chief bitcoin analyst at Quantum Economics, said he believed there were a host of advantages, including the offer of instant, virtually free, financial transactions carried out without the use of a third party, with certainty that there will be instant settlement, and that the current teething problems need to be put in perspective.

Since the Kosovan authorities made the decision, police and customs officers have begun conducting regular raids, seizing hundreds of pieces of hardware.

While a 60-day state of energy emergency remains in place, the prospect of upcoming regulation and energy bill price rises leaves the future anything but certain.