From Health Care to Mining, Central Asia Stays on the Blockchain Beat

Whether it be revitalizing Afghanistan's healthcare sector with blockchain adoption or introducing a waiver for crypto mining in Kazakhstan, digital technology utilization appears to be gaining a foothold in these countries.

Some stakeholders in these nations argue that more still needs to be done if the region is going to enjoy a similar level of crypto and blockchain commerce as seen in Eastern and Southeast Asia.

The draft policy also seeks to establish crypto mining as a legal and regulated activity within the country.

"However, mining will still be deemed entrepreneurial activity in cases when mining farms offer services to use their computing hardware for digital mining. Mining farms would be taxed by analogy with typical data centers as they receive fiat income under commercial contract alike other data-center services."

Back in 2018, the country's central bank called for a ban on crypto trading and mining.

In September 2019, 45 cryptocurrency mining centers were cut off from the national grid as energy officials accused the mining farms of abnormally high electricity consumption.

Government authorities are reportedly looking for ways to regulate the industry, claiming that crypto mining is yet to be defined under federal law.

While Kazakhstan is considering a reduction to the tax burden on crypto miners, Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Economy is set to amend the country's tax code in preparation for the introduction of cryptocurrency mining taxes.

The draft law is reportedly considering two approaches to the proposed crypto mining tax regime - levying taxes on income or expenses.

Based on the popularity of crypto mining in the country, the tax law could see the government earn close to $4.2 million per year.