While the NFT boom has largely subsided, some people still can’t admit that the game is over and we should all just pack up our JPGs and go home.
However, some people really couldn’t stop insisting that NFTs were here to stay — and now, they’re paying the price.
Back in 2022, Rafael Lacava, governor of the Carabobo state in Venezuela, announced that he would be debuting a new NFT project called “Dracula.” According to him, it would be “the coolest game you can imagine.”
How did it go? Well, now Venezuela’s having an energy crisis, and the government is clamping down on cryptocurrency mining. So, great!
This is what the Venezuelan socialist party is about these days…this cartoonishly corrupt dude said he was going to turn his state into a NFT and crypto hub and now the state power grid has failed. https://t.co/wbHNE2RccI
— punished giorgio (@GMomurder) May 21, 2024
If you haven’t been following Venezuelan politics — let’s be honest, why would you? — several members of the government had been previously pretty gung ho about cryptocurrency.
For example, a year before Lacava announced his NFT project, another governor proposed building a “Bitcoin City” in the country where a “healthy and modern trading system with cryptocurrencies” would be implemented. The national government had also released its own cryptocurrency called Petro, which is now defunct. Still, as recently as last month, the government had plans to accelerate cryptocurrency mining.
What did that lead to, you ask? Well, now cryptocurrency mining is banned throughout Venezuela. Success!
Venezuelan authorities have launched a crackdown on Bitcoin miners, and don’t want any crypto mining operations to use the energy grid. Click to read: https://t.co/84y3uRaeQr
— Decrypt (@decryptmedia) May 20, 2024
According to DailyCoin, the Venezuelan National Power Ministry “plans to disconnect all Bitcoin and crypto mining farms from the national grid.” “The agency explained that it aimed to regulate excessive energy consumption by banning all crypto-mining farms in the country from the national grid” amidst ongoing power shortages, the article notes.
Let’s just see who’s spearheading this initiative… Oh, would you look at that! It’s our friend Mr. Dracula NFT Rafael Lacava!
“Lacava emphasized that such measures were essential to stabilize the country’s power grid and offer reliable service to its citizens, especially since the country has been experiencing recurring blackouts since 2019, which have had far-reaching implications for overall economic activity,” reads the DailyCoin piece.
Hmm, I wonder what caused that? Maybe committing valuable power resources to an NFT game that never really made it off the ground? Just a thought.
At time of writing, cryptocurrency miners aren’t really sure about the future of crypto in the country. Maybe there are just a few problems that Web 3.0 can’t solve.
This news is republished from another source.
