Oman centralizes mining: licensed Bitcoin miners are required to operate through a national pool
Oman is taking a decisive step toward state control over cryptocurrency mining. The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, together with Frontier Technologies, has officially launched a national mining pool. Now, all licensed miners in the country are required to connect exclusively to this pool. Enegix Global provided the technological platform and liquidity infrastructure for the project.
This is not just an administrative innovation but a strategic move that fundamentally changes the mining landscape in the region. In the first phase, the pool is expected to consolidate about 10 EH/s of computing power. For comparison, this is comparable to the capacities of large private pools, but now all this hashrate will be under centralized state control.
Billion-dollar investments in infrastructure
Oman is no newcomer to the industry. Since 2022, investments in mining and data center construction in the Salalah Free Zone have exceeded $700 million. A key project has been a $370 million hydro-cooled mining facility. These figures show that the country is serious and sees mining not just as a hobby but as a full-fledged economic sector.
From my perspective, this step is a logical continuation of the policy of many Middle Eastern states seeking to monetize energy resources through mining. However, mandatory connection to the national pool sets a precedent: it deprives miners of freedom of choice and potentially makes them vulnerable to regulatory authorities. In the long term, this could reduce Oman's attractiveness for international mining companies that value decentralization and independence.