now on bbc news: bitcoin has become big business and a major talking point around the globe. our world investigates kazakhstan�*s cryptocurrency boom. bitcoin is a growing part of modern day life. newsreader: let's start though by talking about bitcoin. - newsreader: it is a virtual currency that only _ exists on the internet. newsreader: the value | of bitcoin has soared more than tenfold this year. everyone wants a piece of the pie. but there is one place where the boom has hit big. within two years, kazakhstan has become second only to the us as a global leader in bitcoin mining. the complex technological process that powers this digital money. the industry consumes 1.8 gigawatts of power, 8% of kazakhstan�*s total generation capacity. but kazakhstan�*s crypto boom has come at a cost. i cannot understand why they should sit on coal here, and why i have to breathe with this pollution, while they are generating their income, and the system... and with recent political unrest, is the country falling out of favour with mining businesses? kazakhstan, the richest central asian country. known for its vast oil and coal reserves... radio: and liftoff. ..space launches, and nomadic heritage. it is also now world famous for another reason. there is no place that symbolises kazakhstan�*s crypto boom more than this. just outside the windy city of ekibastuz, they have built one of the largest crypto mines in the world. this highly secured facility hosts equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars. yersain is the manager of this crypto mine, which it is owned by enegix, kazakhstan�*s biggest mining company. how many machines? what's happening inside these powerful computers is the backbone of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. the decentralised digital money can be spent on an increasing amount of things online and offline. there's no middleman or banks involved, the money is sent directly to the wallet of a person or shop. in orderfor a payment be successful, a huge network of volunteers around the world are required to use computers to check and verify it automatically. the process involves extremely complex mathematical problems. volunteers are randomly rewarded with new bitcoins. wow, even with all the ventilation and the giant fans, these are still hot. that's because they are doing extremely complex maths calculations, and solving problems. and they use six times the amount of electricity as normal computer. these mining machines come from investors around the world. enegix host and maintain them 21w. in november 2021, the global crypto market reached a cap of $3 trillion, growing fivefold from a year ago. the booming industry offers a new career path to young kazakhs. which one should i pick? sub—zero? sub—zero. they laugh. no chance. yes! you won! they laugh. they are all installed now, yes. 800 miles away in almaty, company founder yerbolsyn proudly watches over operations. he set up enegix's first crypto mine four years ago. does it make you proud that kazakhstan has become so famous for crypto mining? moldir shubayeva, one of the only kazakh women in crypto mining, is setting up a new facility in the city of almaty, next to a power substation. yeah. is that work? the crypto rush means moldir barely has time for her family or her favourite pastime, horse riding. but today, she is taking a break. it's easier running a crypto mine than riding this horse, isn't it? yeah! oh, wow! is it nice photo? really good. in just two years, kazakhstan has risen to become the second most important country for bitcoin mining. so how has the boom happened? well, firstly, it has some of the cheapest electricity in the world. but it was actually events over the border in china that really boosted the industry here. newsreader: the big story] coming out of china's central bank's crackdown on cryptos, calling all crypto—related activities illegal. reporter: it looks like | they have gone absolute. injuly 2021, china, the former epicentre of crypto mining, introduced a strict ban. bye! goodbye! see you. miners flooded out of the country to relocate their businesses in kazakhstan. 0ne chinese miner we spoke to has been working in the industry for over a decade. he asked us to protect his identity. have you seen many chinese mining companies try to move to kazakhstan? this box came from china. it's our chinese client, and it's already running. how many mining rigs came from china and this stack? more than thousand, more than thousand. but the exponential growth has put pressure on energy supplies in the country. the government says it's now using 7% more electricity than it did last year, and industry insiders say that crypto—mining activity alone uses 1000 megawatts per hour — that's more than half it takes to power almaty, kazakhstan�*s largest city. kazakhstan is now trying to manage the impact of its burgeoning new industry. starting in january, the government introduced an additional tax levy for energy used by crypto—miners. but the restrictions haven't stopped there. didar bakbau had to shut down this 2,500—rig mine because of restrictions on electricity supplies. here we have our software team. but didar and his team aren't giving up on their expansion and are looking for new sites in the country. they've even built a small mine in the office in this luxury apartment complex in central almaty. we have here our gpu mining rigs. this whole thing mines approximately 125 bucks every day. every day? every day, yes. it allows us to pay of our rent. yeah. monthly. and something is left. internet is stable, it's cheap, but most important thing, electricity is not expensive. so you've built all of this in the last... seven months. ..seven months? it's booming. we building more. despite the recent restrictions, the increasing domestic and international demands have put pressure on kazakhstan�*s energy supply and the government is surprisingly open about the situation. what's the government position on electricity shortages, and are people going to have blackouts in their homes? has it happened? when energy supplies are put under strain, things can become tense. injanuary, massive protests erupted across kazakhstan after a sudden increase in fuel prices. there was no direct link to crypto—mining, but the impact of the unrest was huge for miners. the government shutdown the internet nationwide, which took the entire industry off—line for five days. it slowed the global network down by 18% and caused a dip in the price of bitcoin. kazakhstan�*s cheap electricity comes at an environmental cost, too. just 20 minutes' drive from energyx, two other crypto—mines are plugged directly into this coal—fired power station. this is an interesting sort of penny—drop moment for me. i myself have bought bitcoin. i use a phone, use an app, couple of taps, and i've a little bit of this currency that's futuristic, but now i'm here and seeing the physical, real—world side of bitcoin — very noisy, very warm. this is how the whole thing works. without this, bitcoin wouldn't exist. it's mainly coal, and especially if you're talking about the energy generation and heat generation. dana yermolyonok is a climate expert. she's sceptical about the growth of bitcoin in kazakhstan. i cannot understand why they should sit on coal here and why i have to breathe with this pollution while they are generating their income, and this is... it's estimated that crypto—mining, globally, consumes around 120 terawatts hours a year. that's more than argentina — a country with more than 45 million people. are you concerned about the carbon footprint of bitcoin mining? kazakhstan�*s mining growth has clearly had a big impact on the country. we originally came here to cover the country's crypto boom, but, like many booms, could a bust be following — or will a balance be struck? have we reached the peak of kazakhstan�*s crypto—mining, or can it grow? there's no doubt kazakhstan has grabbed the crypto revolution with both hands. the excitement about this blossoming industry was palpable during our time in the country, with fortunes being made and businesses built from nothing. but clearly the growth has come at a cost. such is the importance of this country to the world of bitcoin, now, that tough decisions taken here not only affect kazakhstan, but the future of cryptocurrencies the world over. hello there. the rain is pushing southward, the snow is returning to the north. with a real risk of some quite significant snow through the remainder of the night and the start of sunday. 0ur weather front slowly meandering south bringing that milder, wetter and windier weather. quite a contrast as we go towards dawn. the prospect of several centimetres of snow piling up over the hills of scotland and even a few centimetres at lower levels, blowing around in those strong to gale force winds. of course with that, temperatures close to freezing as well. blizzards in places, in contrast, the rain is quite heavy, pushing its way further southwards across england and wales with a relatively mild in contrast, in fact, temperatures more akin to what they would be in the daytime at this time of year. so we've got that north, south split during the morning strong winds throughout, blowing that rain away we think by the end of the morning for most parts, certainly the heavier rain. but a strong width row, blowing that rain away we think by the end of the morning for most parts, certainly the heavier rain. but he could linger in southern and western areas, still that strong wind, potentially gales through the channel by the north and west a lot of wintry showers following him behind with hail and thunder as well as sleet and hail. a blustery day throughout which will accentuate the chill. in fact, we've got that cold, arctic air with us. these are temperatures to start the day, they will dip away is the day goes on across the southern half of the country. we are into the cold airagain on sunday but it doesn't last long. i think we will have quite a chilly night here under the starry skies. temperatures will fall away and we are more likely to see a frost quite widely by the time we get to monday morning. this is monday morning. a further north and west, we've got the cloud gathering once again and the rain, our next weather front toppling in. doesn't look as if it will give a significant rain because the high—pressure building towards the south. but that weather front here in the northwest at least on monday will give us fairly wet weather. so let's watch the progress of that as it topples into the day. brightness and sunshine further south and east and a relatively mild day in contrast once again a real topsy—turvy with our temperatures as we've seen throughout the week and that continues into the start of next week. high pressure will start to build through, i think there will be a lot of cloud around through the day on tuesday and indeed into wednesday but still a lot of dry and settled weather to end the week. as ever, the warnings are on the website. this is bbc news — i'm rich preston with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the queen celebrates the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne — and says she'd like her daughter—in law, camilla, to become queen consort. it indicates not least that the queen is now thinking about what happens after the end of her reign and it settles one of the big unresolved issues about charles's reign. what will camilla be known as? 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