Putin's Aide Seeks $100 Million to Rival China in Bitcoin Mining

Russian president Vladimir Putin’s co-owned company, Russian Miner Coin (RMC), has officially announced news that it has thrown its hat into the bitcoin mining ring and is challenging China’s efforts. Internet advisors to Vladimir Putin are currently pushing the company to raise $100 million of the bitcoin virtual currency.

During an initial bitcoin offering, RMC will use ethereum or bitcoin to purchase RMC tokens, which will give 18 percent of revenue-earned rights to the company. Vladimir Putin’s internet ombudsman, Dmitry Marinichev, commented at a Moscow news conference on Russian efforts to become a leader in bitcoin: “Russia has the potential to reach up to 30 percent share in global cryptocurrency mining in the future,” said Marinichev.

With this move, RMC is looking to minimize power consumption in computers for virtual currency mining by using Russian-designed semiconductor chips in satellites. Currently, bitcoin mining uses computers with a very small power consumption. Both China and Russia have built out these machines to help mine large amounts of bitcoin. In RMC’s presentation this week, it shared that the country has an extra 20 gigawatts of power and lower consumer electricity prices than China.

Using RMC tokens to raise money for digital assets via ICOs allows for investors to only make money if the business is profitable. While some companies are utilizing bitcoins to shift an ICO over a traditional IPO, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned against this, as there will need to be more cybersecurity around this avenue.

While the race to become the top country in bitcoin mining wages on, it’s certain that Russia and China are serious about cryptocurrency, while the U.S. has yet to dip its toes into the water.