Oman unites miners: mandatory connection to the state pool
Sovereign mining takes a decisive step forward: Oman has officially launched a national mining pool, which all licensed cryptocurrency miners in the country are required to join. This is not a voluntary initiative but a direct mandate from regulators, fundamentally reshaping the industry landscape in the region.
The project was implemented by Oman's Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology in partnership with Frontier Technologies. The key technological link was provided by Enegix Global, which supplied the pool platform and liquidity infrastructure. Thus, the state is taking centralized control not only over mining but also over the distribution of hashrate.
In the first phase, the pool is expected to aggregate about 10 EH/s of computing power. For comparison, this is comparable to the capacity of a mid-sized public mining operator in the United States. It is important to note that since 2022, total investments in mining and data centers in the Salalah Free Zone have exceeded $700 million. Key facilities include a $370 million hydro-cooled mining site, indicating Oman's serious commitment to energy-efficient technologies.
Analytical Commentary: Mandatory connection to a national pool is a precedent that other countries in the Middle East and Central Asia may take note of. On one hand, it increases operational transparency and simplifies tax control. On the other hand, it deprives miners of flexibility in choosing a pool with better fees and payout terms. For Oman, this is primarily a tool for monetizing national energy resources: the state gains direct access to hashrate, and thus to a stable income in bitcoin.