Laos will cut power to crypto miners by early 2026

Reuters reports that Laos plans to stop supplying electricity to crypto miners and redirect that power to higher-value uses like AI data centers and industry. Officials say miner demand has already fallen from ~500 MW at the peak to ~150 MW as a result.

In plain English: Proof-of-Work needs cheap, steady electricity. When a country adjusts its focus, miners relocate or shut down.

That is a power bottleneck, not a software bug. It's why mining clusters chase energy, and why policy can change the map immediately.

Not every chain is built this way. Networks like XRPL use validator consensus instead of mining, which means low energy use and fewer constraints to simply operate.

Secure hosting and governance are still requirements, but it does not compete with data centers for megawatts.