Is mining in Venezuela illegal?

[KorakPawon]

to boost a sluggish economy and to get support from increasingly poor rural poor, last year the government announced new steps to open mining in the southern region of the country, called Arco Minero Orinoco.
The policy poses a major threat to indigenous peoples in the south of the country, who have been vocal against the policy since it was announced.

http://www.forestpeoples.org/id/news-article/2017/venezuela-keb policy-pertambangan- threatens to-hardship

[1714174609]

1714174609

[1714174609]

1714174609

[1714174609]

1714174609

[Thatimber7]

Though Venezuela is introducing their new cryptos but purchasing mining equipments are illegal in Venezuela as Venezuelan government is concerned about the amount of electricity that is required to mine coins and they don't want to waste so much electricity on mining other coins when they will be having their own cryptocurrency soon.

[Dominic_Johnson]

I heard that mining 1 Bitcoin in Venezuela costs approx. $3k whereas in European countries it's more than $6k. It would be a big shame if they had banned mining.

You should not listen to rumors, there are some research which confirmed that in Venezuela mining of 1 BTC is the cheapest in the world and cost only 530$. Also judging by the statement from Carlos Vargas ( government’s cryptocurrency superintendent ), crypto mining is not illegal and all citizens who were indicted and prosecuted will be released from all charges. This is news from January 30 2018, it is possible that something has changed since then, so if you plan to move in Venezuela for mining everything needs to be checked. Just for info, the average salary in this country is less then 10$.

Thanks for some of the more updated info. It's always nice to see links too. I remember reading about a guy who was in Venezuela in 2015. We wanted to see what he could do for 100 euros. We stayed in a 5-star hotel, he bought a plain ticket, he rented a convertible for the day, he bought loads of beer, he bought a bunch of drugs, he ate in the best restaurants, he got a massage and still gave some of the money away. I wonder if it's cheaper or more expensive there now. It seems like it would be pretty nice to live there if you had even a small mining farm. You could live on very little money!

[Crt01]

Venezuela is reportedly making a dam for producing the electricity which will be needed for the future mining of their own cryptocurrency 'Petro'. Till then; I see no chance for them to accept mining as the electricity need for mining right now might deprive the general people of their country from having proper electricity back up.

[robertcross07]

Venezuela is crypto supportive country that’s why crypto mining is perfectly legal in Venezuela.

[Aurora Castro]

I read news about mining forbidden in Venezuela.
I am curious about Venezuela policy for mining,because there have cheap electricity fee.

So far, it has not been registered as illegal. Since the Petro is a cryptocurrency that can be extracted. (I do not know much about this) However, Venezuela has many problems of electricity and slow internet.

[Victorycoin]

It’s not illegal actually. Here bitcoin is the large contribution by the citizens of the country’s GDP. This country with world’s highest inflation rate and strict control of currency; people get btc as their safe alternative for savings.

It is not Bitcoin par se or the legality of cryptocurrency that is the bone of contention in Venezuela, but the mining of it, which without any doubt raises some concerns, as that is sure going to be huge drain pipes on the country's heavily-subsidized electricity. Beyond that, the country can be said to be upbeat about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and the laws are yet in place.

[timerland]

I read news about mining forbidden in Venezuela.
I am curious about Venezuela policy for mining,because there have cheap electricity fee.

They have some pretty ambiguous rules.

Back in January there were reports of them saying that bitcoin mining is perfectly legal. However, fast forward to May, there were also reports of that the importation of mining equipment into the country is now banned.

So yeah, it's theoretically legal, but unless you know your way around Venezuela and understand the legality of bitcoin mining fully, I'd stay away from trying to mine there even with the cheap electricity. The government has shown that they don't really support any crypto activities other than their own Petro.

[stompix]

First good luck on trying to get a miner in the country.
They have banned the imports of ASIC and even of some GPUs, some shipping companies already have a warning for this:

Artículos Prohibidos para envíos a Venezuela
Maquinas de Bitcoin

Also, people have a wrong impression about the cheap electricity in Venezuela, it's not like you can plug in 10 ASICS and nobody will say anything. Apart from the thing that you will turn off the power in the entire neighborhood since the infrastructure is old, not maintained and not designed for such consumption it will immediately trigger an inspection from the electric company.

Mining is not illegal, it's just that you can't mine without authorizations since you're a "business" by their standards.

But, just as it with all cheap stuff in Venezuela you can't be sure to have 24/7 power. Two years ago there was a drought and of course it ended with rationalizations, some neighborhoods saw power only for a few hours a day.

Probably one of the last places on earth where you should consider mining.

[mktpromp]

It is not completely illegal to bitcoin mining in Venezuela but you surely will face difficulty doing it. First of all shipment agencies will not be friendly with you; then comes the law enforcers like police. They are more likely to use your mining as a reason to get some money out from you. But there is no law stating that it is illegal to bitcoin mining directly. So my advice is be careful or you will face serious difficulty. Then again; you should know that Venezuela is working on their own cryptocurrency which is why the government is less friendly to bitcoin miners.

[BITcoinJuniorMB]

There are still some countries where the crypto market has been a prejudice. Venezuela has not openly made the market illegal but the users face a lot of obstacles and hassles when their shipment of the equipment arrive; that is they get damaged and no one can give an explanation how it happened. The government is not that keen towards the market.

[btcscal]

Actually many countries have not accepted the idea of crypto currency due to many reasons. The common reason is that they do not understand it as this very much related to the technology and the concept is new. Venezuela has not accepted this but will do so in future just like others.

[cryptocity90]

 I think there is a lot of crime and civil unrest due to the unstable economy there.This is because of the internal crimes that has been going on in this country.

[Popov_popov]

It seems illegal.

[Dominic_Johnson]

Back in January there were reports of them saying that bitcoin mining is perfectly legal. However, fast forward to May, there were also reports of that the importation of mining equipment into the country is now banned.

So yeah, it's theoretically legal, but unless you know your way around Venezuela and understand the legality of bitcoin mining fully, I'd stay away from trying to mine there even with the cheap electricity. The government has shown that they don't really support any crypto activities other than their own Petro.

Yeah, I think that's what it comes down to. You need to really know your way around things to actually do it. Then, even if you do know your way around very well, you may still run into problems. Some people here are talking about police trying to get money out of your too, if they find out about what you're doing. You should probably also keep in mind that Venezuela is a hot place, so you may have some trouble keeping the temps down in your farms. Russia may be a good option for mining. Electricity is very cheap there too and it's much colder most of the year. You may run into some of the same problems as Venezuela though, if you don't know your way around.

[Ridwan Fauzi]

I have found the old article that Venezuela government allowed someone for mining cryptocurrency.
Venezuela Says Crypto Mining Now ‘Perfectly Legal,’ Announces Petro Presale

And another article,
Venezuelan Government Facilitates Crypto-Mining

Those are pointed out you can mine cryptocurrency in Venezuela. But yeah you should consider some people says like this one, 

Also, people have a wrong impression about the cheap electricity in Venezuela, it's not like you can plug in 10 ASICS and nobody will say anything. Apart from the thing that you will turn off the power in the entire neighborhood since the infrastructure is old, not maintained and not designed for such consumption it will immediately trigger an inspection from the electric company.

Also this one,

So yeah, it's theoretically legal, but unless you know your way around Venezuela and understand the legality of bitcoin mining fully, I'd stay away from trying to mine there even with the cheap electricity. The government has shown that they don't really support any crypto activities other than their own Petro.

That is an important thing.

[Lucius]

I heard that mining 1 Bitcoin in Venezuela costs approx. $3k whereas in European countries it's more than $6k. It would be a big shame if they had banned mining.

You should not listen to rumors, there are some research which confirmed that in Venezuela mining of 1 BTC is the cheapest in the world and cost only 530$. Also judging by the statement from Carlos Vargas ( government’s cryptocurrency superintendent ), crypto mining is not illegal and all citizens who were indicted and prosecuted will be released from all charges. This is news from January 30 2018, it is possible that something has changed since then, so if you plan to move in Venezuela for mining everything needs to be checked. Just for info, the average salary in this country is less then 10$.

Thanks for some of the more updated info. It's always nice to see links too. I remember reading about a guy who was in Venezuela in 2015. We wanted to see what he could do for 100 euros. We stayed in a 5-star hotel, he bought a plain ticket, he rented a convertible for the day, he bought loads of beer, he bought a bunch of drugs, he ate in the best restaurants, he got a massage and still gave some of the money away. I wonder if it's cheaper or more expensive there now. It seems like it would be pretty nice to live there if you had even a small mining farm. You could live on very little money!

As I said in my post, average monthly salary is less then 10$ and most of that money is in food stamps. With 100 euros you can live pretty good there, since this is more then total annual salary. But as some other says, even electricity is cheap, there is no stability of the electrical system and enough electricity for normal living needs. On paper it looks very promising, but in reality it is far from it.

It's really strange that people of Venezuela live in such a poverty, considering that this country have biggest oil reserves in the world. If they can make even small mining farms that would mean a lot for them, actually every extra $ would mean improving living standards.