Cryptocurrencies and calculation power: Eastern Siberia as a new strategic territory for Russia?

This article studies the emergence of a new Russian crypto-mining industry through the prism of Eastern Siberia. This is a major strategic industry for the country as it provides her with an ever-growing calculation power and fosters potential innovations – in encryption especially. The crypto-mining industry has noticeably coalesced in Eastern Siberia as the region offers a series of geographic, climatic, economic and political advantages the magnitude of which is hard to find anywhere else in the world. The article focuses on the oblast that surrounds Irkutsk, and notably the giant farms in Bratsk and Usolye-Sibirskoye, and shows how crypto-mining influences the political and economic balance of the region, especially as the local elite vies for a stake in this lucrative activity. Ultimately, these local changes in Eastern Siberia are susceptible to announce larger transformations in the country.