Sweden‘s northernmost county opened its arms to two cryptocurrency mining firms earlier this year – but it might now be regretting the decision.

The county of Norrbotten, Sweden is playing host to a cryptocurrency mining mystery. Two cryptocurrency mining operations have shut up shop and disappeared, leaving only unpaid bills behind, local news outlet Sveriges Radio reports .

One of them, Miami-based mining firm NGDC, had set up its operations to begin mining Bitcoin. However, the business shut its doors in Autumn as its electricity supply had been turned off due to unpaid bills, totaling over $1.5 million.

The NGDC’s energy supplier has filed for the company to be closed and declared bankrupt. The report does not state if NGDC has successfully mined any cryptocurrency. Or what has happened to the mining company‘s mining hardware.

NGDC had been operating out of premises owned by the local municipality. However, these appear to have been paid for. The municipality has not suffered any financial losses, according to the report.

A second mining company called Chasqui Tech had laid out its plans to mine cryptocurrency and secured premises owned by the local municipality. However the company never arrived to commence operations.

The local municipality is trying to recover over $50,000 in unpaid rent from Chasqui Tech. It is, as yet, unclear whether the municipality has been able to successfully contact the Keyser Söze-esque mining firm.

Nearly half of Sweden‘s electricity needs are serviced by hydroelectric plants, but due to this summer’s drought energy prices have risen. This has made it particularly difficult to profit from mining cryptocurrency in the Scandinavian country.

It’s not just in Sweden though, cryptocurrency mining has become unprofitable all over the world. Earlier this year research revealed that miners had turned over $4.7 billion but were still struggling to make a profit.

Earlier this week, Japanese internet infrastructure giant, GMO, announced a $5.5 million loss from its cryptocurrency mining division.

UK tax authorities: ‘crypto assets’ are not currency or money

The UK‘s tax office, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, published details that outlines its stance on cryptocurrency and digital assets, obviously in the name of taxation.

In a document titled “ cryptoassets for individuals ,” spotted by Coindesk , the HMRC highlights how it does “not consider cryptoassets to be currency or money.” While this might sound anti-cryptocurrency, it’s a stance that the HMRC has to take in order to classify digital assets for what it deems as appropriate taxation.

Indeed, the HMRC sees crypotcurrency, tokens, and digital assets of this nature as property rather than as forms of money.

As a result, cryptocurrency investors who buy based on speculation will need to pay capital gains tax , but only when they sell their coins. If you receive tokens or coins as forms of payment, whether that be from your employer, from mining, transaction fees, or even airdrops you will be liable for standard UK income tax and national insurance.

Medicine’s blockchainification is imminent, say researchers

A report published in the International Journal of Health Geographics has medicine pegged to be the first industry completely revolutionised by the blockchain – but it won’t be easy.

After analyizing 40 papers from the PubMed journal, researchers noticed a continued and growing interest from the healthcare research and medical sector in developing blockchain solutions to streamline almost everything related to health.

Suggested use cases range from powering supply chains to securing medical data, but the report also highlights some fairly futuristic concepts. One radically forward-thinking concept, for instance, envisions using blockchain-enabled augmented reality technologies for “crisis mapping and recovery scenarios.”

The paper attributes the blockchain with potential to breed smart drones powered by distributed peer-to-peer apps, built to provide relief in desperate situations. Autonomous vehicles delivering life-saving equipment such as defibrillators are some of the more futuristic applications developing faster than anticipated.

Emergency situations aside, the report asserts that Internet-of-Things (IoT) tech marks “foundation of the smart healthy cities and regions of today and tomorrow.” One EU-funded project, Guide2Wear, is building blockchain-powered wearable devices that would facilitate seamless traveling on public transport.

The road to realized innovation is not going to be easy, for all great ideas will inevitably face major challenges, the paper posits. All blockchains must be resistant to ‘51 percent attacks’ and have robust security measures, especially considering the sensitive nature of data related to medical records and GPS.

Interoperability – communication between blockchains – is another major hurdle, especially for budding smart cities. The relationship between multiple blockchains must be seamless in order to reap the benefits provided by the technology.

The researchers emphasize that perhaps the most pressing existential problem facing blockchains might just be the European Union. In May, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect. It requires that all personal data must be deletable on demand, a difficult request for a distributed ledger using eternal immutability as a means of ensuring trust in sensitive data.

Considering it has been over a month since the enacting of the EUs new privacy guidelines and the sky hasn’t collapsed on blockchain startups across Europe, the working understanding is distributed ledgers could technically be exempt, as privacy and security are essential cornerstones to their marketability.

The full report is public and can be accessed here .