hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: the queen celebrates 70 years on the throne and marks the occasion by saying that when prince charles succeeds her, camilla should become queen consort. a lawyer says levi bellfield — who was jailed for murdering millie dowler — has now admitted carrying out a double murder another man was jailed for. india mourns the loss of lata mangeshkar, the legendary singer who made her name in bollywood. she's died at the age of 92. and in the final of the africa cup of nations, it's finished goalless between egypt and senegal after normal and extra—time.

the title will now be decided on penalties. and is it the end for erinsborough? the future of the long—running australian soap neighbours is in doubt after it's dropped by channel 5. now on bbc news, bitcoin has become big business and a major talking point around the globe. our world investigates kazakhstan�*s cryptocurrency boom. bitcoin is a growing part of modern—day life. let's start, though, by talking about bitcoin. it's a virtual currency which only exists on the internet. the value of bitcoin has soared more than tenfold this year. _ everyone wants a piece of the pie, but there's one place where the boom has hit big.

within two years, kazakhstan has become second only to the us as a global leader in bitcoin mining... yeah. ..the complex technological process that powers this digital money. the industry consumes 1.8 gigawatts of power, 8% of kazakhstan�*s total generation capacity. but kazakhstan�*s crypto boom has come at a cost. i cannot understand why they should sit on coal here and why i have to breathe through this pollution while they're generating their income, and this is...

explosion and with recent political unrest, is the country falling out of favour with mining businesses? kazakhstan, the richest central asian country, known for its vast oil and coal reserves... and liftoff. ..space launches... ..and nomadic heritage. it's also now world—famous for another reason. there's no place that symbolises kazakhstan�*s crypto—boom more than this. just outside the windy city of ekibastuz, they've built one of the largest crypto—mines in the world.

dog barks this highly secured facility hosts equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars. yersain is the manager of this crypto—mine, which is owned by energex, kazakhstan�*s biggest mining company. how many machines? what's happening inside these powerful computers is the backbone of crypto—currencies like bitcoin. the decentralised digital money can

be spent on an increasing amount of things online and offline. there's no middleman or banks involved. the money is sent directly to the wallet of a person or shop. in orderfor a payment to be successful, a huge network of volunteers around the world are required to use computers to check and verify it automatically. the process involves extremely complex mathematical problems. volunteers are randomly rewarded with new bitcoins.

wow. even with all the ventilation and the giant fans, these are still hot. that's because they're doing extremely complex maths calculations and solving problems. and they use six times the amount of electricity as a normal computer. these mining machines come from investors around the world. energex host and maintain them 21w.

in november 2021, the global crypto—market reached a cap of $3 trillion, growing fivefold from a year ago. the booming industry offers a new career path to young kazakhs.

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no chance! he laughs do you ever get lonely or bored here? yes! they laugh are they all installed now? yes. 800 miles away in almaty, company founder yerbolsyn proudly watches over the operations there.

he set up energex, his first crypto—mine, four years ago. does it make you proud that kazakhstan has become so famous for crypto—mining? moldir shubayeva, one of the only kazakh women in crypto—mining, does it make you proud that kazakhstan has become so famous for crypto—mining?

moldir shubayeva, one of the only kazakh women in crypto—mining, is setting up a new facility in the city of almaty, next to a power substation. yeah.

busy. yeah. does that work? the crypto—rush means moldir barely has time for her family or her favourite pastime, horse riding. but today she's taking a break. it's easier running a crypto—mine than riding this horse, isn't it? yeah!

oh, wow. it's nice for you? really good. in just two years, kazakhstan has risen to become the second most important country for bitcoin mining. so how has the boom happened?

well, firstly, it has some of the cheapest electricity in the world. but it was actually events over the border in china that really boosted the industry here. the big story coming out of china's central bank's crackdown on cryptos, calling all crypto—related activities illegal. well, it looks like - they've gone absolute. injuly 2021, china, the former epicentre of crypto—mining, introduced a strict ban. child: bye! bye. all: goodbye! see you. miners flooded out of the country to relocate their businesses in kazakhstan. one chinese miner we spoke to has been working in the industry for over a decade.

he asked us to protect his identity. have you seen many chinese mining companies try to move to kazakhstan? this box came from china. it's our chinese client. and it's already running. how many mining rigs came from china in this stack? more than a thousand. but the exponential growth has put pressure on energy

supplies in the country. the government says it's now using 7% more electricity than it did last year. and industry insiders say that crypto—mining activity alone uses a thousand megawatts per hour. that's more than half of what it takes to power almaty, kazakhstan�*s largest city. kazakhstan is now trying to manage the impact of its burgeoning new industry. starting in january, the government introduced an additional tax levy for energy used by crypto—miners. but the restrictions

haven't stopped there. didar bekbau had to shut down this 2,500—rig mine because of the restrictions on electricity supplies. here we have our software team. but didar and his team aren't giving up on their expansion and are looking at new sites in the country. they've even built a small mine in the office, inside this luxury apartment complex in central almaty. we have here our gpu mining rigs. this whole thing mines approximately 125 bucks every day. every day? every day, yes, and it allows us to pay our rent monthly, and something is left. internet is stable. it's cheap. but the most important thing —

electricity is not expensive. so you've built all of this in the last...? seven months. it's booming. we're building more. despite the recent restrictions, the increasing domestic and international demands have put pressure on kazakhstan�*s energy supply. and the government is surprisingly open about the situation. what's the government position on electricity shortages, and are people going to have blackouts in their homes? has it already happened?

when energy supplies are put under strain, things can become tense. explosion, shouting injanuary, massive protests erupted across kazakhstan after a sudden increase in fuel prices. there was no direct link to crypto—mining, but the impact of the unrest was huge for miners. the government shut down the internet nationwide, which took the entire industry offline for five days. it slowed the global network down by 18% and caused a dip in the price of bitcoin. kazakhstan�*s cheap electricity comes at an environmental cost, too. just 20 minutes' drive from energex, two other crypto—mines

are plugged directly into this coal—fired power station. this is an interesting sort of penny—drop moment for me. i myself have bought bitcoin. i use a phone, use an app, a couple of taps and i've got a little bit of this currency that's futuristic. but now i'm here and i'm seeing the physical, real—world side of bitcoin. very noisy, very warm. this is how the whole thing works. without this, bitcoin wouldn't exist. it's mainly coal, and especially if we're talking about

the electricity generation and heat generation. dana yermolyonok is a climate expert. she's sceptical about the rapid growth of crypto—mining in kazakhstan. i cannot understand why they should sit on coal here and why i have to breathe through this pollution while they're generating their income, and this is... it's estimated that crypto—mining globally consumes around 120 terawatt hours a year. that's more than argentina,

a country with over 45 million people. are you concerned about the carbon footprint of bitcoin mining? accordion plays kazakhstan�*s mining growth has clearly had a big impact on the country. we originally came here to cover the country's crypto—boom. but like many booms, could a bust be following? or will a balance be struck? have we reached the peak of kazakhstan�*s crypto—mining?

0rcan it grow? there's no doubt kazakhstan has grabbed the crypto—revolution with both hands. the excitement about this blossoming industry was palpable during our time in the country, with fortunes being made and businesses built from nothing.

but, clearly, the growth has come at a cost. such is the importance of this country to the world of bitcoin now that tough decisions taken here not only affect kazakhstan but the future of crypto—currencies the world over. hello there. something of a temperature yo—yo going on in the week ahead. sunday was a cold day across the uk,

biting north—westerly winds, snow across parts of scotland, northern ireland and northern england, but a change afoot on monday as this warm front approaches from the atlantic. as its name suggests, it's going to return milder air from the west across the uk. so, after that cold, frosty and in places icy start, temperatures will recover quite quickly. let's take a closer look, then, at monday and the progression of this warm front. bright skies across central and eastern areas, a good deal of sunshine, before that cloud builds and the sunshine starts to fade. could see some patchy rain for parts of northern england, wales, south—west england, northern ireland, but some more persistent rain later across the far north—west of scotland. look at the temperatures — back into double figures, 10 or 11 celsius. now, here's what i mean with the temperature yo—yo, because on tuesday this cold front slides its way southwards, and it returns the colder air into scotland, perhaps parts of northern ireland and the far north of england. so, more in the way of sunshine here, a few wintry showers pushing in to the north and west of scotland

on tuesday, but further south, where we've got this frontal zone, there will be lots of cloud, some mist and fog over the hills, again, some patchy light rain and drizzle, but never really amounting to much. 11 or 12 celsius for a large swathe of england, wales and northern ireland, butjust single figures across scotland, where we are in that cold air. and here's our cold front on wednesday, it's wriggling around trying to sink its way southwards. slowly, that colder air starts to push its way a little bit further southwards, but we're still holding on to that milder air across a large swathe of england and wales. but where we've got the colder air, should be more in the way of sunshine on wednesday through northern ireland, much of northern england, again into scotland, but we're likely to see more wintry showers pushing in to the north and west of scotland, and so further snow accumulations here. where we've got that cold frontjust lingering across central and southern parts of the uk, we'll keep the cloud and the higher temperatures. behind it, again, temperatures in single digits. by the time we get to thursday, that front is just trying to clear the south of the uk, but look what's happening across scotland.

got this deeper area of low pressure, notice the squeeze in the isobars, so some stronger winds on thursday, the potential that we could see gales, particularly across the northern isles. further snow showers, the chance of blizzards. plenty of sunshine further south, and for many it will be a dry day, but likely to keep a little bit more cloud across the far south of the uk, the winds will be brisker for most of us on thursday, especially so across scotland. as i mentioned, there is a chance we could see some gales here. and it looks like that colder air by this stage on thursday will be starting to get into southern parts of the uk. so, as we head from thursday into friday, notice this area of high pressure is beginning to build from the west. that will then stay with us for a few days, so friday is a cold, frosty start across the uk. that area of low pressure will have moved away slightly from scotland, so the winds beginning to ease, but still the chance of some snow showers, particularly for the northern isles. but for most on friday it's a dry, sunny, crisp and clear day, it will be feeling cold. looks like we'll hold on to that area of high pressure to start the weekend, and that actually probably

into sunday as well for more southern and eastern areas. but then things start to ramp up in the atlantic, areas of low pressure starting to move closer towards us, introducing bands of rain, something milder as well. so it is a temperature yo—yo, really, in the week ahead. it's going to start mild for some, then it will turn cold, the chance that we'll see some snow across parts of scotland. as we move in to next weekend, that area of high pressure drifts away and things will then start to turn milder again. goodbye.