08/05/2021 / By Ethan Huff
The media is reporting that communist China has ceased mining Bitcoin cryptocurrency, suggesting that the industry there has officially collapsed.
Excess energy consumption is taking the blame for the halt, though reports indicate that many of the now-shuttered mining operations have since moved to Texas and Florida.
Some are blaming Bitcoin’s continued descent on China, calling its shutdown of the mining industry an attack on digital currencies that compete with its digital yuan.
Many of the now-shuttered mining rigs were “digging” up Bitcoin in the forests of the Ngawa, Tibetan and Qiang prefectures in Southwest China’s Sichuan province.
“This computational arsenal belonged to a crypto mining farm, a facility crammed wall-to-wall with specialized computers dedicated to solving the complex math problems that keep the network running, and earning new Bitcoin along the way,” Zero Hedge reports.
One such operation, which employed 80 people and housed 80,000 mining machines, is estimated to have “earned” more than 90 million yuan, or about $14 million, during the peak six months of its existence.
Electricity is relatively cheap in this part of China, so it only makes sense that rig after rig lines the rivers there, drawing in millions in Bitcoin profits.
As of June 19, though, the Sichuan government closed the aforementioned mining facility along with 25 others. A clean-up notice was issued the day prior, resulting in an immediate halt to the operations.
Back on May 21, the State Council’s Financial Stability and Development Committee converged to come up with plans to “crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading,” citing financial risks and other factors.
The top-level economic and financial policymaking body chaired by Vice Premier Liu He decided that the Bitcoin mining industry must come to an end in Southwest China.
It was a strange about-face, seeing as how prior to that the communist Chinese government was all too happy promoting Bitcoin and encouraging the growth of the country’s mining industry.
Many people who gave up their livelihoods to join the game are now wondering what they will do next. If they have the means, they plan to reestablish new Bitcoin mining operations elsewhere, including in the United States.
This will be relatively easy, seeing as how Pedo Joe pretty much gave control of America’s power over to China, which can now do with it as it pleases.
Will Bitcoin mining become a much more popular endeavor here in the United States? It already is, thanks in part to China’s movements against it.
One big complaint about cryptocurrency mining in general is that it consumes ungodly amounts of energy, much of which comes from coal. Some regions are building solar and wind farms to provide “clean” mining energy, but these are probably in the minority.
Every government that has attacked Bitcoin mining uses the excuse that the industry is “dirty,” so now miners are moving towards “cleaner” energy sources as rectification.
Interestingly, the Sichuan government was supportive of Bitcoin mining up until recently. Back in mid-2019, it actually welcomed energy-intensive industries because of all the cheap hydropower electricity that exists there, and that otherwise gets wasted.
As of April, communist China is still home to almost half of the world’s Bitcoin mining activity. The U.S. comes in second place at 16.8 percent of the industry.
According to the blockchain information website QKL123, the global average hash rate of Bitcoin dropped 48 percent from its historic peak on May 13 through June 21, just one day after the Sichuan government mandated the closure of all mining rigs.
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